


Black Is White

by Fooldartz



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-26
Updated: 2013-04-26
Packaged: 2017-12-09 13:04:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/774515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fooldartz/pseuds/Fooldartz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On June 17th, the Hollow known as Grand Fisher attacked three members of the Kurosaki family-Masaki, Ichigo, and Ichigo's twin sister Haruhi. The result was the survival of Masaki and Ichigo, but the death of Haruhi. Now Haruhi is an Arrancar, and the Queen of Hueco Mundo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer-I don’t own Bleach

Chapter One

                Isshin looked up from staring at the floor as Ishida Ryuken walked into the hospital room, looking…sad and sympathetic? That wasn’t a good sign. Ryuken only showed emotions on special occasions.  “How bad is it?” He asked softly.

                “Better than we thought.” Ryuken said gently. “Masaki suffered some serious injuries, and we had to remove part of her liver, but she’ll live. Ichigo suffered far less damage, just some broken bones. But Haruhi…that Hollow ate her. I’m sorry, but there wasn’t anything we could do, she was dead before you got them here.” Isshin blinked back tears and nodded silently, looking back at the floor. He’d thought that was the case, but he hadn’t wanted to risk stopping to check and losing her as a result. The worst part would be telling the rest of his family, especially Ichigo. How did you explain to a 9 year old that his twin sister and best friend was dead? Ryuken stood there in silence for a moment, started to place a comforting hand on his friend’s shoulder, then thought better of it and headed back to the rooms were Masaki and Ichigo were being cared for. There was still work to be done if he wanted to make his assurances that the two would live stay true.

_Hueco Mundo-At the same time_

                Grand Fisher walked through Hueco Mundo, limping slightly. His visit to world of the living hadn’t been as successful as he’d hoped. He’d attacked a woman and her two children, but he’d only managed to get one of the children before he’d been forced to return to Hueco Mundo. On the bright side though, the girl had been surprisingly powerful, practically bursting with reiatsu. He’d have to remember where that place was; maybe it had more children with reiatsu equal to that of a Shinigami…He frowned from beneath his mask and stared at his chest as a burning sensation filled his body.

                The Hollow screamed as numerous spikes of reiatsu erupted from its body. All the other Hollows in the area scattered as they felt the spike in reiatsu that normally indicated that a Hollow was evolving from its previous state to a more powerful one. They all knew that the first thing on any newly evolved Hollow’s mind was to sate its hunger, and none of them wanted to be devoured. Grand Fisher gave one final scream, and then his body exploded, transforming into reiatsu, which swirled around the recently vacated spot and began to form a new shape. As the vortex slowed, a new shape began to form, that of a young girl who looked almost perfectly human. The only differences that were readily apparent was that the sclera of her eyes were just as black as her pupils, while the irises were yellow, and a white and red bone fragment that sat just above her left eye, covering a large chunk of her forehead. Then the vortex, which was much smaller now, drew level with the girl’s belly button. She looked down at it curiously, right up until it began burrowing into her stomach, at which point she began to scream, not stopping until the energy had succeeded in drilling a clean hole right through her stomach. The girl stared at the hole in disbelief, and then sank to her knees, exhausted.

_Hueco Mundo-Two years later_

                “Where exactly are we going?” Cirucci demanded. Haruhi shrugged and continued walking.

                “I don’t know. I just know there’s a ton of reiatsu coming from that direction, and I want to see what’s making it.” She said, continuing to trek across the dunes. Haruhi was technically 11, but she didn’t look it. She was five feet nine inches now, though she’d remained rather thin, since eating Hollows didn’t really tend make one fat. Her clothes had grown with her though, since they were made of spirit particles and there were plenty of those in Hueco Mundo. They were rather simple in nature, unlike Cirucci’s-white pants and a long white jacket that parted slightly so that the bottom half of her Hollow Hole was showing. The only nonwhite thing in her wardrobe was a large, wide brimmed felt hat that she’d stolen from the human world on one of her trips to Karakura Town to check on her family. Cirucci hated the hat, and Grimmjow agreed that it looked stupid, though he didn’t care enough to bring it up multiple times the way Cirucci did. Ulquiorra, unsurprisingly, never commented on it. Nelliel didn’t either, though Haruhi suspected that that was less because she didn’t care, and more out of politeness.

                If anybody asked how exactly Haruhi had managed to get four extremely powerful to follow her around, she’d just say that they were her friends, which was true now. But that had really only applied Nelliel at first. Well, that could be true of Cirucci too, the purple haired Arrancar had never said why exactly she decided to follow Haruhi. Ulquiorra and Grimmjow were different stories though.

_Hueco Mundo-Fourteen months ago_

                Haruhi was wandering aimlessly through the desert. She found that she did that a lot now, even after she’d discovered how to open Gargantas to the world of the living. There weren’t any real landmarks in Hueco Mundo after all, just empty desert and dead trees. Suddenly, she felt a reiatsu spike, and turned to face it, curious. To her surprise, she could see a group of Gillians attacking another more powerful Hollow. She frowned and ran in that direction, using sonido to get closer.

                Grimmjow jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding a blow from one of the Gillians, and threw a Cero right into its face, cursing. He’d only recently become an Arrancar, and already this shit was happening to him. It’s not that he minded fighting, no, far from it. But enjoying fighting didn’t make him stupid. The problem was that it took about three Ceros to take down a single Gillian, and there were five of them. On the other hand, it would only take one blow from them to take him out of the fight. Just as this thought crossed his mind however,  one of the Gillians fired a Cero at him. He dodged, but not quickly enough, and was thrown into the air, where another Gillian lifted its hand to smack him. Suddenly, another Cero was fired, this one vaporizing the Gillian’s arm. Grimmjow hit the ground and looked up just in time to see a female Arrancar with short, spiky black hair begin to utterly demolish the Gillians, killing each with one Cero blast. Grimmjow stared in shock as she turned towards him, and put one hand on his sword hilt, readying himself in case she chose to attack him as well.

                “Hey are you okay? I mean, you look pretty tough, but that Cero blast sent you flying pretty far. What where you doing, attacking those Gillians anyway? It didn’t seem like a very smart plan, but maybe you had a strategy I didn’t see yet. But anyway, back to your wounds. Do you need any help with them? I think I have some bandages somewhere, though I’m not sure where.” Grimmjow blinked as the girl rummaged through some pockets in her jacket, not sure what the hell was going on. Then he remembered the dead Gillians, and sanity restored itself.

                “You stole my kills!” He yelled accusingly. The girl blinked at him, one hand still in a jacket pocket.

                “Huh?” She asked, puzzled.

                “Those Gillians were mine! How am I supposed to get stronger if people like you show up every time I fight and keep me from eating?” The girl blinked again, and her eyes widened.

                “Oh, you’re right, I’m so sorry. You can eat what’s left of those guys if you want.” She said, pointing at what little remained of the Gillians. She frowned sadly. “I know it’s not much but…Oh, I know, how about you travel with me?”

                “What?” Grimmjow growled.

                “Well, every Hollow here wants to eat other Hollows so they can get stronger, so if I keep my reiatsu at a low enough level, then they’ll just sense two Hollows that are powerful enough to be worth eating, but not powerful enough to be too much of threat, at which point we kill them and you eat them!”

                “You mean we lower our reiatsu.” Grimmjow growled, walking over to what remained of the Gillians and eating them. The girl shrugged,

                “I suppose, though I thought you’d want Adjuchas, Gillians,  and maybe even some low level Arrancar’s, not regular Hollows. In all honestly, I don’t think I can lower my reiatsu to the point where it won’t scare away regular, low level Hollows.”

                “What the hell are you talking about?” Grimmjow snapped. “What are you trying to say, that your reiatsu is higher than it is right now?” The girl nodded earnestly.

                “Yes. I have to suppress it all the time, because when I didn’t, things started dying around me, and then all the Hollows started avoiding me and I was starting to get really hungry, so I went to the world of the living, but then humans started dying, and Shinigami started coming after me, so I came back here, and now I keep my reiatsu pretty low.” Grimmjow tried to decide whether or not he should be insulted, since her ‘pretty low reiatsu’ was at about the same level as him.

                “Fuck it, let’s just go.” He said, deciding not to care about it. He’d follow her for a while, at least until he was stronger than her. The girl smiled.

                “Okay. Any direction in particular?”

                “No.”

                “Alrighty then. By the way, my name’s Haruhi, what’s yours?”

                “Grimmjow.” The girl nodded.

                “Nice name. It suits you. By the way, why were you fighting those Gillians anyway?”

                “I startled them.” Grimmjow admitted. “Wasn’t looking where I was going.” Haruhi nodded again.

                “I do that sometimes.  It’s hard to keep alert when everything looks the same, isn’t it?” Grimmjow just grunted, and the two walked on in silence.

_Hueco Mundo-The Present_

                She’d encountered Cirucci not long after meeting Grimmjow. Grimmjow had tried to eat Cirucci, and the two had fought for almost an hour before Haruhi had stepped in. If the two Hollow plan worked well, she suggested, wouldn’t three Hollows be even better? The other two had reluctantly agreed, after they’d explained the situation to Cirucci, and then they continued on their way. Nelliel had come next, intrigued by this group of traveling Arrancar, as their species was rarely willing to work together. Ulquiorra had been the last to join. They found him wandering around by himself, and Haruhi had extended him the same offer, deciding that he seemed interesting. Ulquiorra, ever the practical one, had decided that there was safety, or at least continued existence, in numbers and agreed. The others had grown used to each other, and the number of times Grimmjow and Cirucci tried to kill each other had greatly diminished, now only happening once every two months or so. All the same, occasionally Haruhi did things that made them question why they stayed around. Like now, when she was heading in the direction of a steady flow of reiatsu that was higher than even hers.

                “Do you wanna stay behind?” Grimmjow grinned at Cirucci, who was starting to have trouble breathing. Cirucci gave him a venomous glare.

                “Shut the hell up.” She growled, doing her best to hide just how much the pressure was affecting her. Grimmjow just laughed, and they continued on, Nelliel rolling her eyes.

                “Huh, that’s odd, the pressure’s getting closer.” Haruhi said, cocking her head to the side. “And not just because we’re walking closer.” She continued, shutting down Grimmjow’s retort before he could so much as open his mouth. “It seems he…no, they realized that we were coming and decided to get a good look. Well, let’s get going, the sooner we meet them the sooner you all can start breathing again.” The others all gave her startled looks. Even Ulquiorra’s eyes widened slightly. Cirucci, being the weakest of them, had had the most difficulty with the reiatsu, but the others had felt the strain too, they were just better at hiding it. Or so they’d thought at any rate.

                “Well, you’re certainly strong.” A man’s voice called out. The five all looked up as a tired looking young man walked towards them, followed closely by a small girl with green hair. “All the same, I’d recommend that you leave before…” Suddenly, Cirucci collapsed, followed closely by Grimmjow, Ulquiorra, and even Nelliel. The man sighed. “That happens.” Haruhi screwed her eyes shut, concentrating, and flared her reiatsu. Within seconds, a white dome had formed around Haruhi and her four friends, forcing the man’s reiatsu back. Haruhi looked at them in concern as they slowly picked themselves up, one by one. Cirucci and Grimmjow both looked humiliated, and Haruhi’s worry was somewhat alleviated by the fact that Grimmjow was even blushing slightly. Nelliel looked at the others in concern, then frowned at the man in front of them. Ulquiorra, for his part, looked…well, he looked like Ulquiorra, calm and dispassionate. Haruhi made a mental note to try pranking him to see if she could get some kind of reaction out of her friend. And if that didn’t work then she’d have to go with the last resort of comedy. Knock-Knock Jokes.

                “Well well, that is impressive.” The man said calmly, raising an eyebrow at Haruhi’s reiatsu level.

                “You’re not bad yourself.” Haruhi said with a smile. “Want to come with us?” The others stared at her in shock, and even the man seemed surprised.

                “You want me to travel with you? Even though I almost killed your friends with my reiatsu?” He asked, sounding puzzled. Haruhi increased her own reiatsu up another notch, smiling.

                “Trust me, I can keep this shield up forever. And I know some good tricks you can use to get that reiatsu under control. So, what do you say? Traveling alone can’t be very entertaining after all. Better to have companions, maybe even friends eventually.” She smiled good naturedly, extending a hand outside the dome. The man considered her for a moment, having a silent conversation with the little girl next to her.

                “Lilynette comes too.” He said finally. Haruhi’s smile got wider.

                “Absolutely. Now then, on to business.” The man raised a wary eyebrow, not sure that he liked this talk of business. “What is your name, and do you like bananas?” He blinked.

                “Coyote Starrk. And…what are bananas?” Grimmjow groaned.

                “Haruhi, enough with the bananas already. Face it, there aren’t any in Hueco Mundo.” He growled. Haruhi opened her mouth to argue, but Nelliel cut her off with a look.

                “Fine.” She said with a sigh. “Let’s just get going.”

                “Where are we going?” Lilynette demanded, speaking up for the first time. The five Arrancar in the dome all pointed in different directions, and Haruhi laughed.

                “Wherever we feel like. We normally just take turns picking a direction and go from there.” She told the little girl, setting off to the west, the others close behind.

_Karakura Town-3 years later_

                Haruhi sat in the sky, staring down at the buildings, her eyes locked onto one in particular. “Kurosaki Clinic.” She said slowly and out loud. Her reading skills had deteriorated quite a bit over the years, with reading not being something one used often in Hueco Mundo. She’d spent the last three days wandering above Karakura Town, looking for her family. The problem was, she knew Ichigo could see spirits. After all, that had been one of the reasons the two had been so close in life, their shared ability to see the dead. Unfortunately, that meant her spying had to be done from above. She doubted her brother knew specifically what Hollows were, but she doubted he’d be happy to see a girl with a hole in her stomach stalking him.

                Eventually though, she’d found him, latching onto both the high reiatsu and the orange hair. She’d followed him home, and now she was sitting down, watching the twins play in front of their house and listening to Ichigo argue with their father over something trivial. Smiling at their happiness, she rolled onto her stomach and dropped slightly so she could get a better look, forcing as much of her reiatsu down as possible so that the family would remain unaware of her presence. Suddenly, the unmistakable pressure of a Shinigami appeared behind her, and she sighed. “Leave me alone please Shinigami-san.” She said calmly, not looking away from the house. “There are spiritually aware people in that house, and I wouldn’t want to bother them with our fighting.”

                “Neither do I.” The Shinigami replied. “Which is why I’m going to request that you leave quietly.” Haruhi’s eyes widened in surprise, and she rolled onto her back so she could get a look at this surprisingly rational Shinigami. To her surprise, he wasn’t clad in the traditional black robes, but was instead wearing a green cape, a green and white bucket hat, and wooden sandals, and there was a black cat on his shoulders. She decided to refer to him as ‘Hat and Clogs’ until she learned his real name. The biggest surprise however, was that he didn’t appear to have drawn his zanpakuto.

                “Why would I do that Hat and Clogs?” She asked, testing out the new nickname. The man’s eyebrow twitched, and Haruhi thought she heard the cat laugh. “I just found my family again, why should I leave them? It’s not like I’ve hurt them after all, and I’ve had plenty of opportunities to do just that.” Urahara opened his mouth to say something, then frowned as something she’d said registered with him.

                “Your family?” He asked. Haruhi nodded. “So…you’d be Kurosaki Haruhi then?”

                “Yes…do you know my family?” She asked curiously.

                “In passing.” Urahara said with a shrug. Haruhi frowned for a second, since she couldn’t remember him, then shrugged. Five years was a long time for humans, plenty of time for her family to make new friends. Urahara and Yoruichi exchanged a look. Normally, a Hollow followed its family around because it hated them for moving on, or on occasion just because it wanted others to share its misery with. And yet, this Hollow seemed completely different. They’d watched her for a while, waiting for her to make a move, but she hadn’t. She’d seemed quite content to sit back and watch her family be happy without her.

                “What do you want?” Yoruichi asked flatly, deciding to cut to the chase. Haruhi frowned and leaned back, resting on her hands.

                “Want? Nothing really. I’m just here on a little vacation, checking up on my family. I’m going to have to leave soon.” Yoruichi stared at her for a moment.

                “You’re rather calm for someone talking to a cat.” She observed. Haruhi shrugged.

                “I’ve spent the majority of the last five years in Hueco Mundo. I’ve talked to weirder things than a cat.” She said with a smile. Yoruichi nodded, and she and Urahara exchanged a look, having a silent conversation.

                “Very well.” She said finally. “You may stay here, so long as you do not harm any humans, including pluses. If you have to eat, either leave, or eat a Hollow.”

                “Thanks!” Haruhi said happily, standing up. “And don’t worry, I won’t eat anything. After bananas, souls taste pretty bad.” She disappeared, leaving Urahara and Yoruichi standing there, confused.

                “That was…interesting.” Urahara said finally. Yoruichi sighed.

                “I’m going to go talk to Shinji and the others. If I’m not back soon, it’s because I wanted some normalcy and struck up a conversation with Mashiro.” She said, shunpoing away. Urahara just chuckled and headed back to the shop.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer-I don’t own Bleach

Chapter Two

                Nelliel walked into the throne room of Haruhi’s palace and sighed. Cirucci and Grimmjow were locked in a battle to the death again. She sighed and hit both of them with a small cero, knocking them backwards. “What is it this time?” She asked Ulquiorra, who was sitting in a chair reading one of the books Haruhi had brought back from the world of the living.

                “I believe Grimmjow tripped her when she was walking by.” Ulquiorra said calmly, not looking up from his book. Nelliel sighed and picked the two up by their collars.

                “Really Grimmjow? Really?” Grimmjow just laughed, and Cirucci kicked him in the balls. Grimmjow glared at her. Thanks to hierro it didn’t actually hurt him, but it was the principle of the thing. Nelliel sighed again, holding them farther apart.

                “I swear, you two make Haruhi look mature.” She told the two.

                “Hey, I’m mature!” Haruhi protested, walking in. The others all gave her a dry look, except for Starrk, who was sleeping in a hammock. “What?”

                “Lazybones over there is more mature than you.” Lilynette said with a snort. Nelliel rolled her eyes and let go of Cirucci and Grimmjow.

                “Barragan sent a messenger.” Ulquiorra told Haruhi, who sighed and used sonido to get in her throne. She liked being Queen, after all, what girl didn’t fantasize about being royalty at one point or another? But some of the responsibilities that came with her position, like dealing with the arrogant ‘God of Hueco Mundo’, were getting tiresome.

                “You’re the one that wanted the position.” Nelliel reminded her, smiling slightly.

                “I know.” Haruhi said. “Send in the messenger.” Lilynette rolled her eyes and ran over to the grand ballroom doors, opening one to let in Barragan’s messenger. Haruhi perked up slightly when Tier Harribel walked in, something that didn’t escape Cirucci, who scowled. Nelliel bent down to whisper in the purple haired Arrancar’s ear.

                “Don’t get mad at her until after Harribel leaves, alright?” Cirucci glanced at her.

                “I’m fine.” She whispered back. Nelliel raised an eyebrow, and Cirucci  rolled her eyes. “Shut up ‘mom’.” Nelliel just sighed.

                “So, what does the great Barragan want now?” Haruhi asked dryly. “I already told him, I’m not going to help him in some stupid attack on Soul Society.”

                “King Barragan requests an audience tomorrow, sixteen hours from now. He is willing to meet here, and not in Los Noches.” Harribel said calmly. Haruhi stifled her surprise, though she did sit up straighter in her throne.

                “ _Barragan requests_ an audience with me?” She said incredulously. Barragan didn’t request to meet with her, he demanded. And he never volunteered to leave Los Noches, especially not to come to her palace, Las Riquezas. She wondered if that really had been the wording of the message, or if Harribel had changed it in hopes of making Haruhi more likely to accept it.

                “Yes. He wishes to bring a guest as well.” Harribel said, her face not revealing anything. Haruhi blinked. A guest? Had someone replaced Barragan with a decent Hollow, one that understood that he wasn’t a god?

                “Who is this guest?” Haruhi asked.

                “His name is Sosuke Aizen.” Harribel told her. Haruhi frowned slightly. Had Harribel’s eye twitched when she said that name? Interesting, Harribel was normally almost as stoic as Ulquiorra. Haruhi mulled it over in her mind. She had to admit, she was intrigued by this strange turn of events. And between her and her inner circle, she was sure that they could handle anything Barragan and this Aizen could throw at her. After all, she’d fought Barragan to a draw back when she was still establishing herself, and she’d only gotten stronger since then.

                “Very well.” Haruhi said after another moment’s thought. “But he may only bring two guards.” Harribel nodded, and followed Lilynette out of the throne room. “What do you guys think?” She asked once the door had closed.

                “Heh, looks like the geezer finally recognized who’s the stronger ruler.” Grimmjow said with a pleased grin. Ulquiorra gave him a look.

                “Do you truly believe that Grimmjow? Barragan thinks he is a god, he would never admit that somebody may be inferior to him. No, there is a different motive behind this.”

                “Well, no point in worrying about it.” Starrk called from his hammock. “We’ll find out what he wants when he gets here.” 

                “Good plan.” Haruhi said sincerely, standing up.

                “No! No it’s not!” Cirucci protested. Haruhi waved a hand, gesturing for her to calm down.

                “Of course it is. At my current level, I could probably kill Barragan myself. Throw in you guys, and if he tries to pull anything it’ll just end with him dying.” She told the other Arrancar.

                “She has a point.” Nelliel admitted.

                “Of course I do.” Haruhi said with a grin, walking out of the throne room

_Hueco Mundo-Fifteen hours later_

                Sosuke Aizen looked around in interest as he and Barragan entered the grounds of Las Riquezas, Barragan’s guards standing just outside. It was vastly different from Los Noches, representing the differences between the two rulers of Hueco Mundo rather well. The only similarity was the artificial sun hanging in the sky, and that didn’t really count, as Aizen, not Barragan, had been the one to make it. While Los Noches was a harsh desert, with the grounds outside the buildings being covered in sand dunes, Las Riquezas was covered in grass, except for one large area immediately outside the palace itself, which was taken up by what appeared to be a grove of banana trees. The whole place exuded a sense of…warmth, an oasis from the harshness of Hueco Mundo. “It seems like a nice place.” He said, pushing his glasses up. Barragan scowled.

                “It’s a disgrace.” He growled. Aizen raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as they continued down the path towards the palace. He glanced to the side, and was surprised to see a blue haired Arrancar standing under one of the banana trees, holding a large basket that already had a large bunch of the fruit in it. The Arrancar frowned, hearing the sound of the two men’s footsteps, and looked over.

                “Shit! Haruhi, the geezer’s here!” He yelled up the tree. A young woman with short black hair popped out of the tree’s foliage, hanging upside down.

                “What’s that Grimmjow                ?” She asked, cocking her head to the side. She looked at Barragan and Aizen. “Oh, Barragan, you’re here early.” She said with a slight frown before directing her attention to Aizen. “Hello, you must be Aizen, the guest Harribel mentioned.” She said, holding out her hand to shake despite still hanging upside down. “I’m Haruhi, Queen of Hueco Mundo.” She said, smiling. Aizen politely shook her hand, hiding his surprise. He’d been told by several of his Espada that she was weird, for a Hollow anyway, but he had not expected someone this…silly.

                “Shouldn’t we go inside?” Grimmjow asked Haruhi, who nodded quickly.

                “I suppose you’re right.” She said, dropping down and somehow landing on her bare feet, then bending down to pick up her hat. “After all, I shouldn’t make my guests stand outside, that’d be rude, and if I’m rude, then Nelliel will get upset, and that’s never fun.” She said, walking towards the palace door. Grimmjow repressed a shudder. Nelliel took her ‘position’ as surrogate mother for the group seriously, even though everybody but Haruhi and Ulquiorra had expressed their displeasure with the arrangement, even Starrk. And when she got upset with them, it made Grimmjow glad he couldn’t remember his past life as a human, as it meant he didn’t remember how terrifying his mother must have been.

                Aizen looked around in interest as Haruhi led them through the palace itself. He noticed that there were several works of art that had clearly been stolen from the world of the living. He smiled slightly, remembering the utter confusion that had filled the Gotei 13 when Mayuri had reported that several gargantas had been opened in Human museums, but the only thing to happen had been the theft of a few pieces, with no humans dying at all. Yamamoto had wanted to post Shinigami in every museum to catch this Hollow thief, but Kyoraku had gotten him to calm down, pointing out that there were more pressing issues than the theft of human art, and besides, no human authority would seriously consider that the soul of a dead person was responsible for the theft.

                His other thoughts were pushed aside as they entered the throne room, and he took in the five Hollows standing on either side of the room. They resembled guards, though none of them were standing at attention, and none of them had anything resembling uniforms. To make things even stranger, two of them had green hair, and another had purple hair, in addition to Grimmjow’s blue hair. “Who are they Haruhi-sama?” Aizen asked, gesturing at the Arrancar.

                “Ah yes. Introductions. This is Ulquiorra Cifer, my right hand man” Ulquiorra nodded politely at Aizen and Barragan. “Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, my general,” Grimmjow said nothing, taking his place in between Nelliel and Cirucci. “Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, my advisor,” Nelliel gave a little curtsy. “Cirucci Sanderwicci, my head of security,” Like Grimmjow, Cirucci said nothing. “Coyote Starrk, my…I don’t know, resident hobo?”

                “Lazy Court Jester.” Lilynette suggested. Haruhi frowned, thinking.

“Maybe.” She said thoughtfully. “Anyways, and this is Lilynette Gingerbuck, Starrk’s motivator.” She said, falling back into her throne. “Now then, what’s this about?”

_Las Riquezas -Five minutes later_

“Let me see if I have this right.” Haruhi said slowly, looking at the two men in front of her. “You” She pointed at Aizen. “Want me to put my life, the lives of my friends and my subjects, and my realm on the line in order to help you betray your people and become a god.” She stared at Barragan, wondering if the old Hollow had finally gone senile. Aizen said nothing, watching her calmly from behind his glasses. “My answer is no.”

“Pity.” Aizen said in mock sorrow. It really was a pity in a way. Having the ‘God’ and ‘Queen’ of Hueco Mundo on his side would have been incredibly useful. He’d just have to work with being the man who’d killed the Queen. He reached for his zanpakuto. Before he could so much as touch it though, every member of Haruhi’s inner circle had drawn their own swords and leveled them at him.

“I really wouldn’t recommend that.” Starrk said calmly. Aizen looked around the room, not really worried. Between his skills and Barragan’s power he was confident they could easily win.

And then Haruhi flared her reiatsu.

 Aizen struggled to remain calm and composed, but it wasn’t easy. He’d spent most of the visit wondering just how Haruhi had become the Queen of Hueco Mundo when she was so immature and scatter brained. Now he knew. The last time he’d felt so much reiatsu coming from one person was also the last time he’d seen Yamamoto unleash his shikai. And just like that time, there was the inescapable sense that there was more reiatsu where that came from, that the person unleashing a veritable storm of reiatsu could easily increase the intensity of the storm.

“Starrk, Nelliel, please escort these two out of Las Riquezas.” Haruhi said calmly, her voice not betraying a hint of strain, or even anger. “Cirucci, please inform the security forces that these two are not to be allowed back, and that all messengers from them must be escorted whenever they aren’t in the throne room.” The three Arrancar nodded, and Haruhi watched as they left with her guests.

“That won’t be the end of it.” Grimmjow pointed out. Haruhi nodded, sighing.

“Start drilling the army again, make sure they’re ready.” She said. “I have a feeling that we’ll be going to war again soon.”

_Karakura Town-Twelve hours later_

Haruhi’s eyes widened as she stepped out of the garganta and into the skies of Karakura Town. There was a Hollow here. A weak one, but a Hollow nonetheless. She briefly wondered if Barragan or Aizen had sent it here, then decided they hadn’t. If it had been an attack against her and her family, they’d have sent Harribel, or another Arrancar, not a relative weakling like this one. But right now, the politics didn’t matter. What mattered was that there was a Hollow attacking her family, attacking her younger siblings. She raced in the direction of the Kurosaki residence, zanpakuto drawn. She arrived just in time to see Ichigo kill the Hollow with a massive zanpakuto, one slightly smaller than hers had been before she placed another seal on it. “What? Shinigami? What? When did he…?”

“Just now.” Urahara said cheerfully, walking up. “Your little brother is now a substitute Shinigami.”

“How long have you been watching?” Haruhi asked slowly. Urahara started to feel nervous, though he couldn’t quite tell why.

“A while.” He admitted. Haruhi whirled around and pressed the tip of her sword against his throat.

“And you didn’t step in because why?” She demanded. “My little sisters, my father, my  mother, they’re all lying bleeding on the ground. Why didn’t you step in?”

“It was under control.” Urahara said quickly. “I would have stepped in if any of them had been in actual danger.”

“I think being attacked by a Hollow counts as being in danger.” Haruhi growled, not moving her sword.

“Not really. After all, they were being guarded by two experienced Shinigami. Me, and Kuchiki Rukia down there.” Urahara said cheerfully. “Besides, this needed to happen.” Haruhi narrowed her eyes.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Within the year, Karakura Town will become the battleground of a war for the control of the Afterlife. We need all the help we can get, and Ichigo is the best bet we have.” Haruhi slowly removed her sword.

“Does this war have something to do with the plans of Sosuke Aizen?” She asked . Urahara blinked, then put the pieces together.

“He’s begun making his move in Hueco Mundo then, has he?” He said. Haruhi nodded, making him sigh. “That’s not a good sign. Oh well. Time to move on with the plan.” He said, jumping down and landing a few feet in front of Rukia. Haruhi watched in silence for a few seconds, then smiled. If Ichigo was truly a Shinigami now, then that meant he knew what Hollows were! And if that was the case, then that meant that she could actually talk to him soon without him freaking out over the hole in her stomach! Haruhi opened up a garganta, whistling happily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh Haruhi? I don’t think you’ve quite thought this plan through. He might not be freaked out by the hole in your stomach, but I can pretty much guarantee that he’ll be freaked out by the fact that his twin sister is now a Hollow.
> 
> Thanks for reading guys! See you next time!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer-I don’t own Bleach

Chapter Three

                Haruhi scowled. This was starting to get ridiculous. She’d been fine with ignoring the Hollows entering Karakura Town before. They were dumb beasts, for the most part, not under the authority of her or Barragan. Admittedly, Acidwire was pretty smart, but she hadn’t felt the need to destroy him, since killing a Hollow for following a family member around would have made her pretty hypocritical. But now Shrieker was in Karakura Town? That was pushing it too far. She focused in on the Hollow’s reiatsu and began using sonido.

_At the same time_

                Ichigo glared at the Hollow, breathing heavily. He glanced over at Rukia and Chad, both of whom were heavily wounded, and then back at the Hollow. A plan began to form in his mind involving that thing’s tongue and its explosive slug things. Before he could try and put it into action though, a young girl dropped from the sky, landing on the ground in-between him and Shrieker. Shrieker stared at her in horror and began backing away. “Oh no you don’t.” The girl growled, grabbing Shrieker by the throat and lifting the Hollow up into the air. Ichigo and Rukia stared in shock, confused and surprised by this sudden turn. “Now Shrieker, what have I said about Karakura Town?”

                “That it’s off limits!” Shrieker said quickly, sounding desperate. “I’m sorry your majesty, I didn’t realize where we were, I was just following that kid!” Ichigo jumped out of the way as the girl whirled around and slammed Shrieker into the ground.

                “Sorry, no second chances.” The girl growled, forming a ball of red energy in her left hand. “Goodbye.” Shrieker screamed as the ball of energy slammed into his face, killing him. She stood up straight, and Ichigo saw that she had a Hollow Hole in her stomach.

                “Rukia…” He said slowly, taking up a fighting stance once more. The short shinigami nodded and led Chad away quickly, pulling out her kikanshinki as she did so. He turned to face the Hollow girl, only for her to run at him. Before he could react, she hugged him tightly, grinning.

                “Oh it’s so good to finally get to talk to you! I’ve been watching for a while now, but now you know about Hollows and everything, so it’s all good!” She pulled back to look at him. “And you’re so tall now! You’re as tall as I am! I didn’t realize how tall you were because I only saw you from like 100 feet away. And you look so cute in your little Shinigami robes, and …just…” She hugged him again, grinning like a maniac, and Ichigo got the distinct impression that she was trying not to squee. “It’s so good to talk to you! I know I already said that but it is!” Rukia walked back to where Ichigo and the Hollow were and frowned at the sight that greeted her. This was very disconcerting on two levels. On the one hand, it was Ichigo being hugged by a very enthusiastic Hollow wearing a floppy brown hat. On the other hand, it was a ginger version of Kaien being hugged by a female version of Kaien wearing a floppy hat. She shook her head, pushing back thoughts of Kaien.

                “Ichigo, who is this?” She asked, confused. Hollows didn’t act like this. Some of them could talk and think perfectly fine, but they didn’t get happy excited, just bloodlust excited.

                “I have no idea.” Ichigo admitted, looking over his shoulder. Rukia suppressed a laugh at the panicked expression on his face. Admittedly, he had every right to be freaked out by the fact that a Hollow was hugging him.

                “Oh, you know who I am.” The Hollow said, still smiling widely. “Oh, and thanks for turning my little brother into a Shinigami, it’ll make everything much easier.” She told Rukia, looking over Ichigo’s shoulder. Ichigo stared at her incredulously for a moment. “C’mon Ichigo, put the pieces together, I know you can.” The Hollow urged him, her smile somehow getting bigger while remaining not creepy.

                “Haruhi?” Ichigo asked, eyes wide.

                “There it is!” Haruhi said, clapping. “I knew you’d get eventually, even if I did have to drop a pretty obvious clue. Sherlock Holmes you aren’t.”

                “Okay, just…stay still.” Ichigo said, swinging Zangetsu. Haruhi’s eyes widened and she jumped backwards faster than either of the Shinigami could see.

                “What the…Is this really how you greet your dead twin? By trying to kill her?” She demanded.

                “I wasn’t going to kill you, I was just going to purify you so you wouldn’t be a Hollow anymore!” Ichigo protested.

                “Why would you do that?” Haruhi asked, looking genuinely confused. “I like being a Hollow. If you made me back into a plus and sent me to Soul Society, I’d have to try and become a Shinigami, and that would take a lot of time, and I’d lose all my friends, and I have no idea if Soul Society has any bananas. Do they?” She asked, looking at Rukia.

                “Uh, I don’t think so.” Rukia said slowly, still trying to process what was happening.

                “See? Soul Society is clearly an evil place.” Haruhi said, nodding as if she had just won some great argument.

                “But…how are you...how come you look human? And why did you kill that Hollow?” Ichigo spluttered, thoroughly confused.

                “Well, for the first question, I’m an Arrancar. And a Vasto Lorde, but that doesn’t really matter right now. As for the second question, once I’d made sure that you guys were still living here, I made it very clear to all the Hollows under my control that Karakura town is off limits.”

                “Hollows under your control?” Rukia asked, confused.

                “Yes. Of course, that guy didn’t work for me, I don’t let assholes like that work for me. No, he lived in Barragan’s territory.” Rukia blinked.

                “Explain.”

                “I’m Haruhi.” Haruhi said with a shrug, as if this explained everything. Rukia glared at her.

                “Explain more.”

                “I’m _Haruhi_. I’m the Queen of Hueco Mundo. Half the Hollows in Hueco Mundo answer to my authority, which I won after I defeated Barragan, the ‘God’ of Hueco Mundo in single combat.” Haruhi said brightly. Rukia gulped, and suddenly Haruhi was behind her, Rukia’s denreishinki in her hand.

                “Hey!” Rukia protested as Haruhi began typing things into it.

                “Relax, I’m just hacking your phone so you can’t call Soul Society and tell them about me. Knowing them, they’d kill the rest of my family on the off chance they might become as powerful as me if they die without a shinigami present to make sure they don’t become Hollows. Hell, Yamamoto might just kill them all for being related to me.”

                “How do you know how to hack a denreishinki?”  Rukia demanded.

                “Urahara lets me practice on his copies when I get bored.” Haruhi said with a shrug, tossing it back to Rukia.       

                “There you go. It’ll still tell you when Hollows are coming, and I left a few other options, but you won’t be able to contact Soul Society anymore.” She said before turning to Ichigo. “Now then little brother…”

                “Enough of the little brother crap, we’re twins!” Ichigo protested, cutting her off. This time Haruhi did squee, and she hugged Ichigo tightly.           

                “It’s good to know some things don’t change.” She said happily. Her smile became mischievous. “But you are my little brother, you know that right?”

                “What part of ‘twins’ don’t you understand?” Ichigo demanded.

                “Ah, but I was born five minutes before you were, which makes me the older sibling.” Haruhi countered, flicking him on the forehead. “Now, as I was saying before I was interrupted…” She paused. “What was I saying?”

                “How should I know?” Ichigo demanded, exasperated. Just then, Rukia’s denreishinki started to beep.

                “Ah, that’s right! There are ten low level Hollows entering Karakura Town.” Haruhi said. “Want to go play a little game with them? Say, whoever kills the most wins?” Ichigo grinned.

                “You’re on.” He said, running off.

                “You’re slow!” Haruhi taunted, running past him. “You’re so going to lose.”

                “We’ll see about that!” Ichigo snapped, putting on more speed. Rukia watched them run, smiling wistfully. She was a little worried about letting Ichigo run off with such a powerful Hollow, but Haruhi had had far too many opportunities to kill them for her to be truly hostile. She scowled and headed for Urahara’s shop. That didn’t mean that she was willing to ignore the fact that Urahara had neglected to mention the fact that an incredibly powerful Hollow spent a large amount of her time in Karakura Town. She was going to have to have a ‘talk’ with him.

_Urahara’s Shop-At the same time_

                Urahara straightened up from inspecting some of the new merchandise, an ominous feeling running down his spine. He quickly went upstairs to his room and rummaged through his dresser, eventually pulling out a reinforced cup. He had a feeling he’d be needing this in a few minutes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, some of you may be wondering why Ichigo was so quick to accept Haruhi. Well, there are two main reasons for this. The first is that since Ichigo already knows about Hollows and spirits, and has known about them for a while, he’s just happy to finally see his twin again, even if he was a little thrown off by her being a Hollow. And the second reason is, well, let’s face it, Haruhi doesn’t exactly act like a Hollow, at least not any Ichigo has encountered. Remember, Sora and Shrieker were the only Hollows he’d encountered at that point that were capable of talking, and neither of them talked a lot and were still very bestial. Haruhi, on the other hand, looks almost perfectly human and acts more like Orihime than a Hollow. 
> 
> Thanks for reading guys! See you next time!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer-I don’t own Bleach

Chapter Four

                Haruhi raised an eyebrow. “You want to do what?” She asked Ichigo.

                “Spar.” Ichigo repeated, sounding a little annoyed.

                “Ichigo, did you not hear me? I’m the Queen of Hollows, you’re a substitute shinigami. You’ll lose and lose badly. If you want to beat me, we could have a banana eating contest, you might win that.” Ichigo’s left eye twitched. He was starting to wonder if all of Haruhi had been brought along when she died, since he didn’t remember her having a banana obsession back when she was alive.

                “Look, I don’t want to fight to the death, I just want to spar.” Ichigo snapped, drawing his zanpakuto. Haruhi sighed and slowly drew her own zanpakuto. Ichigo grinned and charged at her. Haruhi waited until the last second, then sheathed her zanpakuto and caught Ichigo’s in her bare hand.

                “C’mon little brother, use your Shikai! You’ll never hurt me like that!” She said with a smile, Spartan Kicking Ichigo backwards.

                “The hell’s a Shikai?” Ichigo demanded, charging back at her. Haruhi blinked, then leaned to the side, neatly dodging.

                “You don’t know what a Shikai is? I thought Rukia was (oh careful there, you almost hit my hat) teaching you about being a Shinigami. Tell me you at least know your zanpakuto’s name.”

                “I’m supposed to name it?” Ichigo asked, surprised. Haruhi sighed and moved forward, shoving into Ichigo’s stomach and throwing him over her shoulder. “What are you doing?” Ichigo demanded, struggling.

                “I’m going to get somebody to teach you about Shikai.” Haruhi said simply, running over the city towards Urahara’s shop.

                “Why can’t you just put me down and do that yourself?” Ichigo growled. Haruhi laughed.

                “I’m not a Shinigami, remember? I can’t teach you that. And stop struggling; you’ll hurt yourself on my Hierro.” With that said, she walked into Urahara’s shop, Ichigo still draped over her shoulder, and stopped in front of Urahara, who looked at her in surprise.

                “Why Haruhi-san, what a pleasant surprise!” He said, smirking at Ichigo. Haruhi plopped her brother down on the ground in front of the shopkeeper.

                “He doesn’t know his zanpakuto’s name, or how to use his Shikai. Teach him.”

                “And what do I get out of doing so?” Urahara asked curiously. Haruhi leaned forward to whisper conspiratorially in his ear.

                “A stronger ally for the upcoming war.”

                “Why are you whispering?” Urahara whispered back, as Ichigo sweatdropped, deeply confused.

                “Because whispering is fun, and it confuses Ichigo.” Haruhi whispered back. Urahara grinned.

                “Okay, deal.” He said, leaning away from her.

                “Good. See you later little brother.” She said happily, practically skipping out of the shop. She was about to open a garganta back to Las Riquezas when Rukia appeared in front of her, her arms folded and she was glaring up at Haruhi. “Oh, hi Rukia. What can I do for you? I don’t suppose you have any bananas, do you? It’s been days since I had a decent banana.”

                “What is up with your banana obsession?” Rukia demanded, irritated. She’d planned on confronting Haruhi about why she was so different, but the girl’s quirk had driven that plan from her mind.

                “Bananas taste good.” Haruhi said simply. “They were the first thing I ate after becoming a Hollow that wasn’t a Soul. Now, I’m afraid I have to leave. Oncoming war and all that, I’m sure you understand, thanks for training my little brother, don’t worry; I got Urahara to teach him about Shikai, I’m sure you had your reasons for not teaching him about that, but anyway, bye!” She opened a garganta and disappeared inside it before Rukia could react. She sighed. Talking to Ichigo’s sister almost always left her with a headache.

_Hueco Mundo-One hour later_

                “Haruhi, I need to talk to you about something.” Nelliel said, walking up to Haruhi, who was frowning thoughtfully.

                “Do I have blood on me?” Haruhi asked, spinning in a circle and trying to get a good look at herself.

                “Uh, no.” Nelliel said, confused.

                “No bits of soul? No Hollow remnants, no smushed pieces of banana?”

                “No. Why?” Haruhi looked to either side, and then beckoned Nelliel to lean down so she could whisper in the taller Arrancar’s ear.

                “Cirucci keeps staring at me, and she always gets this hungry look in her eye when she does it. I thought maybe I had a big chunk of food on me. I’m starting to get worried. Do you think she’s so busy she hasn’t been able to eat recently? I suppose we have been keeping the security on fairly high alert since our meeting with Aizen.” Nelliel smiled and patted Haruhi on the head.

                “I’m sure she’s fine.” She assured the girl.

                “If you say so.” Haruhi said slowly, clearly still concerned. “Anyway, what did you want to talk to me about?”

                “I’ve been looking into all the Hollows that have been appearing in Karakura Town lately.” Nelliel told her. “And it appears that all of them have been coming from Barragan’s territory.” Haruhi blinked in surprise.

                “But that doesn’t make any sense. So far only one of them has been a talker, the rest were all dumb Hollows. Why would Barragan send them? I just figured they were attracted by Ichigo’s reiatsu.”

                “Maybe he didn’t want to waste intelligent troops before a war.” Nelliel suggested. Haruhi sighed.

                “Alright, keep an eye on them. I’ll go pay him a visit tomorrow.” She said. She was too tired now, and if things turned violent, fighting Barragan in anything less than tiptop shape would be suicide. Nelliel nodded, and then walked over to Cirucci, who was sitting at a table they’d pulled up and playing poker with Grimmjow, Ulquiorra, and Starrk.

                “Cirucci…” Nelliel started. The purple haired Arrancar sighed and looked up at Nelliel.

                “What do you want?”

                “Your staring is starting to worry Haruhi.” She told Cirucci flatly.

                “Come again?” Cirucci asked, blinking in surprise.

                “Your staring is starting to worry Haruhi.” Nelliel repeated. “She could see the hunger in your eyes, and was worried that she’d been working you so hard that you didn’t have time to eat. I told her that wasn’t the case, but she’s still worried.”

                “Well, she is hungry, the boss got that part right at least.” Grimmjow said with a smirk. Cirucci glared at him, and then sighed.

                “Fine, I’ll try and stop.” She told Nelliel, turning back to her cards.

                “No.” Cirucci blinked again.

                “What?”

                “This isn’t going to stop, and we all know it.”

                “You mean everyone but Haruhi knows it.” Starrk corrected, frowning at his cards.

                “Yes.” Nelliel said, conceding the point. “At any rate, the best thing for both of you is for you to just go and talk to her.” Cirucci stared up at her, then sighed and stood up.

                “Fine.” She said, walking away from the table. A few minutes later, she knocked on Haruhi’s bedroom door.

                “Come in!” Haruhi called. Cirucci opened the door to find Haruhi eating a plate of food that, miracle of miracles, didn’t have any bananas on it. “Oh, hi Cirucci! I was just eating dinner, do you want some?” Cirucci shook her head.

                “I’m fine.” She said with a small smile, walking over to Haruhi, who frowned in concern, setting her fork down.

                “Are you sure? Because I saw how hungry you looked earlier, and it’s really no trouble, I mean it’s not like we’re going to run out of food anytime soon…”

                “Stand up please.” Cirucci said, still smiling. Haruhi frowned, but stood up, confused. Haruhi opened her mouth to ask what was going on, but Cirucci wrapped her arms around Haruhi’s neck and kissed her, cutting off any questions.

_Elsewhere in_ _Las Riquezas_

                “What is she doing with her hands?” Lilynette wondered. She, Grimmjow, and Starrk were all in the security room, watching the camera feed from Haruhi’s room. Currently Haruhi hadn’t broken away from Cirucci, but her arms were moving everywhere, though she was careful not to touch Cirucci with them.

                “I think she’s trying to figure out _what_ to do with them.” Starrk said with a slight smile. Grimmjow started to chuckle, which soon turned into full out laughter, as Haruhi briefly placed her hands on top of her head before finally settling on clasped firmly behind her back.

                “Okay, that’s enough.” Nelliel said, walking in and turning the camera off, though she too had a slight smile on her face. “Let’s give them some privacy.”

_In Haruhi’s room_

                Cirucci pulled away from Haruhi, smiling at the flushed look on the other girl’s face. “Well, that was…” Haruhi said before stopping. She really wasn’t sure what to say about that. Cirucci glanced down, frowning when she noticed that Haruhi’s arms were still behind her back.

                “What are you doing with your hands?” She demanded. Haruhi blushed even fiercer.

                “I wasn’t sure what to do with them, so I guess I just… put them there.” Cirucci sighed and shook her head, smiling at Haruhi’s awkwardness.

                “Look, just let your arms hang at your sides.” Haruhi nodded and put her arms down. Cirucci unwrapped her arms from around Haruhi’s neck and placed Haruhi’s hands on her hips, holding them in place to make sure Haruhi got the idea, and then wrapped her arms back around Haruhi’s neck. “Now, let’s try that again.”

_Los Noches-At the same time_

                On the outside, Barragan looked perfectly calm. On the inside however, he was seething. He knew that he’d be subordinate to Aizen, at least until he killed the arrogant Shinigami, but that didn’t mean that he was happy about the fact that he was no considered merely another Espada, and would be summoned _along with_ the others. He was the God of Hueco Mundo dammit, not some pathetic Arrancar!

                Aizen suppressed a smirk. He knew exactly what Barragan was thinking. Pushing those thoughts aside, he looked at the ten Espada in front of him. It was time to deal with the problem that Haruhi and her followers represented. “Tomorrow we will begin our invasion of Las Riquezas. Szayelaporro, you are in charge. You will be accompanied by Zommari, Luppi, Yammy, Rudbornn, and however many Arrancar and Hollows you feel are necessary for the task.” The pink haired Espada bowed and walked out of the room, followed by the others. Aizen smiled. He couldn’t wait to see how well the so called Queen of Hueco Mundo would handle being invaded by 5 of his strongest Arrancar. 


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer-I don’t own Bleach

Chapter Five

                Cirucci and Grimmjow were on patrol, just doing a quick circuit around Las Riquezas. "So?” Grimmjow asked, smirking.

                “So what?” Cirucci growled. She was fairly sure that she knew what he was going to say, but she’d be damned if she said it before he did.

                “How long did you stay up last night?” Grimmjow asked, that stupid smirk still on his face.

                “We didn’t.” Cirucci replied, sounding frustrated. Grimmjow blinked, surprised.

                “You were alone, in Haruhi’s bedroom, with Haruhi, after kissing her, and you didn’t jump her?” He said incredulously. Cirucci scowled.

                “Yes.”

                “Why?”

                “Quite frankly, I don’t think she knows what sex is.” Cirucci told him. “And I mean that literally. I think she died before anyone told her about it, and none of us thought to clue her in.” Grimmjow stared at her for a moment, then burst out laughing. “Shut up.” Cirucci growled. “We’re on patrol, remember? Focus.”

                “Right.” Grimmjow said, the smirk never leaving his face. Before the two could argue any further however, two Arrancar landed in front of them. Cirucci and Grimmjow both immediately placed a hand on the hilts of their zanpakutos.

                “Oh? It looks like there’s only two of you.” One of the two, a rather effeminate looking man  said, looking disappointed. “Strange, I would have sworn I sensed fifty.”

                “The erstwhile Queen’s reiatsu must be interfering.” The other one, who seemed to be wearing the skull of a bull on his head, said, drawing his zanpakuto.

                “Who the hell are you?” Grimmjow growled, as he and Cirucci, drew their own zanpakutos. The effeminate man bowed.

                “I am la sexta Espada, Luppi Antenor.” He said, straightening and drawing his zanpakuto.

                “And I am la décimo Espada,  Rudbornn Chelute.” The bull headed one said.

                “The hell’s an Espada?” Cirucci demanded. Luppi laughed.

                “We are the 10 strongest soldiers in the army of Sosuke Aizen.” He told them. “You might as well give up now and surrender to death. Pathetic ants like you have no chance against us.”

                “Alright, that’s enough.” Grimmjow growled. “I call sissy boy, he’s pissing me off.” He told Cirucci, leveling his sword at the Espada in question, who laughed and charged.

                “Grow, Árbol.” Rudbornn said. Cirucci watched as vines wrapped around him and he grew taller, nine branches that ended in skulls growing from his sides.

                “So, your Resurrección is turning into a tree.” She said. “You’re kind of weak, aren’t you?”

                “You underestimate my power.” Rudbornn said, sounding angry.

                “It’d be kind of hard not to.” Cirucci said, cracking Golondrina. “I mean, you’re a fucking tree.”

“You are foolish to do so. For my power is that of a God!” Suddenly, the skulls at the end of the branches dropped to the ground and grew into…things resembling Arrancar. “Behold, the Calaveras! I can produce an endless number of these. You stand no chance.” Cirucci grinned.

“That’s more like it.” She said, lashing out with Golondrina and decapitating three of the Calaveras.

_Elsewhere in Las Riquezas-At the same time_

Haruhi was walking through the palace when a pink haired Arrancar appeared in front of her. “Uh…hi.” She said slowly, confused.

“You are ‘Queen’ Haruhi, correct?” He asked.

“Yeah. Who are you?” Haruhi asked, slowly placing a hand on the hilt of her zanpakuto.

“I am la Séptimo Espada Szayelaporro Granz.” The Arrancar said, drawing his own zanpakuto.

“What’s an Espada?” Haruhi asked curiously.

“It is unimportant.” Szayelaporro said arrogantly, lifting his zanpakuto to his mouth. “There is no point in telling things to the dead. Sip, Fornicarás.” Haruhi blinked in surprise as he swallowed his sword and began to change.

“Butterfly wings?” She asked, cocking her head to the side. Szayelaporro swung his wings at her, trying to grab her apparently, but Haruhi jumped back, drawing her zanpakuto.

_Elsewhere in Las Riquezas-At the same time_

Lilynette was walking through the grounds when a massive figure dropped down in front of her. “What the? Who the hell are you?” She demanded, jumping back in surprise.  The man looked around and growled.

“Damn it! I knew this would fucking happen.” He growled. “I felt a bunch of reiatsu over here, but it’s just some damn kid. The Queen’s reiatsu must be interfering.”

“Hey!” Lilynette yelled, throwing a pebble at his head. “Don’t ignore me! Now tell me who you are!” The man gave her a disdainful look and backhanded her, sending her flying into one of the banana trees. Lilynette moaned in pain and slowly got back up.

“You’re still alive? How annoying.” He growled, drawing his zanpakuto and walking towards her. He lifted his blade, but as he swung it down Starrk appeared in front of him, blocking it with his hand. “Oh?” The Arrancar said in surprise, raising an eyebrow. “Finally, someone who’ll be a real challenge.” He said with a smile. “I am la noveno Espada, Yammy Llargo. Who are you?” Starrk said nothing, instead tightening his grip on the blade and snapping it in his hand. “The fuck?” Yammy roared. Starrk remained silent and stabbed the fragment of blade into Yammy’s stomach. Yammy let out another roar, this one of pain, and staggered backwards. Starrk charged up a Cero and fired it into his head, decapitating the giant Espada. Starrk turned from the dissolving corpse to look at Lilynette.

“Are you okay?” Lilynette nodded, and Starrk gave a small sigh of relief.

_Elsewhere in Las Riquezas-At the same time._

“Kill me dammit!” Nnoitra roared at Nelliel’s back. She stopped, but didn’t turn around.

“No.” She said simply before continuing on. Nnoitra pushed himself up back onto his feet, grabbed what remained of his zanpakuto, and charged at her back.

“Don’t you dare pity me!” He yelled. Nelliel sighed and whirled around, a ball of green energy in her hand.

“Cero Tiro!” Nnoitra was sent flying backwards and into the air, the special cero sending him flying out of Las Riquezas and into the desert of Hueco Mundo.

_Elsewhere in Las Riquezas-At the same time_

“Live long! Live long and prosper! Live long and prosper! Live long…Live long and prosper Aizen-sama!” Zommari Rureaux bellowed as he slowly bled to death, his cries only silenced by his disintegration. Ulquiorra stared silently, then frowned as a massive spike of reiatsu flared inside the palace proper. He wasn’t concerned, he knew Haruhi could handle anything Barragan and Aizen threw at them, but it did concern him that she’d felt the need to release so much reiatsu, even if she hadn’t resorted to Resurrección.

“What do you think’s going on in there?” Starrk asked, walking up with Lilynette.

“Nothing good, but nothing particularly bad either.” Nelliel said simply, walking up from the other side.

“What’s taking Cirucci and Grimmjow so long?” Lilynette demanded, looking around.

“Grimmjow is playing with his opponent.” Ulquiorra said, looking in the direction of where the two most…enthusiastic members of Haruhi’s inner circle were fighting. “And Cirucci’s opponent is constantly multiplying, making it difficult for her to kill them.”

“Well, let’s go help them!” Lilynette said, frustrated.

“They’d never forgive us.” Starrk said, shaking his head. “Besides, we’ve got more immediate problems.” One hundred Arrancar had amassed in front of them, blades drawn. Nelliel and Starrk sighed simultaneously, and they and Ulquiorra charged.

  _Elsewhere in Las Riquezas-At the same time_

“Enough!” Rudbornn snapped. “Luppi, quit playing around and kill him!” Luppi glared at him, pushing some hair out of his eyes.

“You’re one to talk.” He growled. “But fine.” He turned to smirk at Grimmjow. “Strangle,  Trepadora!” Grimmjow watched as eight tentacles burst from the Espada’s back. He blinked.

“Is that it? I let you live just so I could see your Resurrección, and that’s all you have to offer?” He shook his head and spat. “What a waste of time.” Luppi’s eyes widened in rage, and all of his tentacles grew spikes and swung at Grimmjow, who snorted and disappeared  in a burst of static. Luppi whirled around as Grimmjow appeared behind him, then gasped as Grimmjow plunged an arm into his stomach. “Later, Sexta Espada.” Grimmjow said with a smirk, firing a Cero and vaporizing everything above his arm. He turned around and glared at Cirucci, annoyed. “Dammit woman, aren’t you done yet?” He demanded. Golondrina looped around Rudbornn, cutting off all the branches and then punching into the bull headed Arrancar’s head.

“Yes.” She growled as the Calaveras fell to the ground, disintegrating. 

“About damn time.” Grimmjow said, walking in the direction of the remaining invaders.

“Shut up. It’s not like you have any room to talk.” Cirucci snapped, following him.

_Elsewhere in Las Riquezas-At the same time_

Szayelaporro whirled around and stared as the reiatsu of the last invader disappeared. “What’s wrong?” Haruhi taunted, cutting off the last of his wings. “Where’s that arrogance you had earlier?” She asked, aiming another slash at his head, which he barely managed to dodge.

“Tch, they were all pathetic anyway.” The pink haired Espada said, slashing at Haruhi, who neatly stepped to the side. “I am the perfect being, I will not lose!”

“Oh really?” A second Haruhi asked, appearing behind Szayelaporro. “Does that mean you know what this technique is?” The man snorted and turned to face this second Haruhi.

“Of course I do. It’s Gemelos Sonído. One of those weaklings knew the same technique.” He said, lashing out and stabbing the second Haruhi, who smirked and exploded.

“Bzzt, wrong! It’s called Cero Viviendo.” The real Haruhi said with a smile, walking up to Szayelaporro from behind as he staggered out of the smoke cloud. “And this technique…”She thrust her sword forward through his back and into his heart, “is just called stabbing the dude.” She said with a smile. She thought for a second, then shrugged and ate what was left of him. She might as well get the boost in reiatsu, however minimal.

“So, what was that all about?” Grimmjow demanded, walking into the palace with the others. Haruhi raised a hand, signaling for silence as she went through Szayelaporro’s memories.

“Barragan’s not in charge.” She said surprise. “Apparently Aizen took over Los Noches…and they have walls and a ceiling now!”

“Barragan let someone take over his kingdom?” Nelliel said in surprise, ignoring the comment about the architecture of Los Noches.

“Apparently Aizen kicked his army’s ass and forced Barragan to admit that he was superior. Apparently he is La Primera Espada though.”

“Looks like we’re going to have gear up for a full on war again.” Starrk sighed.

“Did that man’s memories tell you anything about Aizen’s ultimate plan that he didn’t tell us?” Ulquiorra asked. Haruhi paused, and then shook her head.

“Nothing. Either he doesn’t have a full timetable written up yet, or he just hasn’t told them about it. I’d say it’s probably the latter.” She said with a shrug. “What’s the casualty levels?” She asked, turning to face Nelliel.

“Minimal. We lost a few soldiers when the non Espada pushed into the palace grounds, but most of our troops were on patrol. Most likely we lost a few more, seeing as we didn’t get any warning, and a large portion of the wall was destroyed. Besides that though, we seem to be fine. They underestimated us.”

“Are you really surprised?” Grimmjow asked. “I mean, it’s been two years since we had to fight in any major battle. I can’t remember the last time I used my Resurrección.” He sighed. “And if this is the best Aizen has to offer, this war is going to be seriously boring.”

“At least there’ll be Barragan and Aizen.” Cirucci said, shrugging.

“That’d be true, if it weren’t for the fact that Haruhi is the only one who can actually fight the old bastard. Stupid broken aging powers.” Grimmjow growled. Suddenly, Haruhi let out a gasp of horror.

“What happened to the banana grove?” Nelliel facepalmed.

“I knew I forgot something.” She muttered. “That got destroyed in the battle with the hundred Arrancar.” She told Haruhi, who sighed.

“Damn it, those things take two days to grow.” She muttered. “And I can’t afford to waste the energy thanks to Aizen.”  She shook her head and straightened. “Oh well, I’ll just have to kick their asses extra hard in vengeance. Now let’s go fix that wall.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, some of you may be wondering about why those hundred Arrancar were waiting in the background instead of charging in with the Espada. Well, Szayelaporro’s plan was for Rudbornn to make Calaveras to form the foot soldiers, since they’re easily replaceable unlike Arrancar. Unfortunately for him, Rudbornn and Luppi landed in front of Grimmjow and Cirucci. And don’t worry Nnoitra isn’t dead, so he’ll show up again for a grudge match with Nelliel. And a major reason for why the Espada seemed so weak was the lack of the Hōgyoku, which did make them stronger. Aizen’s arrogance is a major factor as well.
> 
> Thanks for reading guys! See you next time!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer-I don’t own Bleach

Chapter Six

                Aizen walked into his lab, where Tosen and Gin were waiting. “How soon can we use the Hōgyoku?”

                “We can’t use it.” Tosen said simply, adjusting the some of the dials on a machine.

                “Excuse me?” Aizen demanded. Gin hastily stepped in.

                “What he means, Kisuke-san destroyed his notes too thoroughly. Our Hōgyoku is incomplete, and we can’t finish it. We’ll have to find a way to get his before you can bond with one.”

                “But can we use it to power up a Hollow?” Aizen asked. Gin stared at him, then his smile widened.

                “Las Riquezas proved tougher than you thought?” He asked. Aizen glared at him.

                “Just answer the question.”

                “Probably.” Gin said. “I can’t say what side effects there’ll be though.”

                “It’ll be worth it.” Aizen said, grabbing the Hōgyoku and walking out.

                “Wow. This Queen sure is making Aizen-sama upset.” Gin remarked casually as he and Tosen returned to doing their work. “I hope he doesn’t do something foolish.”

                “Everything we do is in the name of justice. So long as we stay true to that, we will never be foolish.” Tosen said calmly. Gin stared at him for a moment.

                “Right. How silly of me.” He said. The hardest part about being undercover wasn’t patience; it was dealing with Tosen’s fanaticism. 

_Hueco Mundo-Five minutes later_

                Like Barragan, Aizen kept a straight, calm face despite the fact that inside, he was seething. Unlike Barragan however, Aizen knew how to keep it hidden, so nobody could tell just how furious he was. They all knew that the recent battle had been a huge upset, and that Aizen was angered by the utterly humiliating _ease_ with which five of his Espada and a hundred of his Arrancar had been dispatched. It had taken all of his restraint not to kill Nnoitra for delivering the news of the defeat, but practicality had prevailed. He couldn’t afford to lose an Espada this close to the endgame. He had, however, demoted the Arrancar to 10 th Espada.

                Now though, he knew what to do. He had wanted to avoid this. The Hōgyoku wasn’t complete yet, and he’d hoped to keep Las Riquezas for himself. He sighed. Oh well, if a _Hollow_ could create something like Las Riquezas, there was no doubt in his mind that he could do the same just as easily. In the meantime, he needed to take care of the threat Haruhi and her inner circle represented. And he had just the tool to do that with. Not long after he’d discovered Barragan and his power, he’d built a machine to amplify those powers using the Hōgyoku. However, that plan had been scrapped when they realized that Barragan’s powers rendered the entire area it effected unusable. He saw no benefit in destroying part of the world he wished to rule. Now however, he needed to use it. Haruhi needed to be put down, and he wasn’t going to risk more Espada, even if he probably could wear her down with enough time. She was merely a minor roadblock after all, not part of the endgame like the destruction of the Gotei 13 would be.

                “What do you want Aizen?” Barragan growled as he walked into the room with the device where the old Arrancar had been waiting.

                “How would you like to destroy Haruhi without putting yourself in any danger?” Aizen asked pleasantly, placing the Hōgyoku in the device, which was a large box with two handlebars on it and a satellite dish on the front.

                “Do you even have to ask?”

                “I suppose not.” He admitted with a slight smile, stepping away from the machine. “The purpose of this machine is very simple. It will amplify your powers, allowing you to work from a distance. It has been calibrated to start your aging attack just on the border of Las Riquezas, and it’ll be tall enough to completely tower over the palace itself. Barragan gave a predatory smile and stepped forward, placing his hands on the handlebars and closing his eyes.

_Las Riquezas-At the same time_

                Haruhi woke up with a start, feeling a burst of dark reiatsu coming closer and closer. “What is it?” Cirucci said sleepily, blinking up at Haruhi.

                “Grab your zanpakuto.” She told her, getting out of bed and changing out of her pajamas and into her regular clothes. Cirucci watched her, not sure what was going on. Then she felt the reiatsu, and her eyes widened in shock. She hadn’t felt that reiatsu since the war.

                Nelliel threw the door open just as Cirucci and Haruhi were about to come out. She blinked in surprise. “Oh good, you’re already awake.”

                “What, did you think I was just going to sleep through the pressure of Barragan’s Respira?” Haruhi asked, putting on her hat as she walked out of the bedroom.

                “I wouldn’t put it past you.” Starrk said dryly, running up with the rest of the group.

                “I’ll admit it; I didn’t expect Barragan to show up himself after only one failed attack.” Grimmjow said, sounding a little puzzled. Haruhi stopped and concentrated, feeling to see how many soldiers Barragan had brought with him.

                “He’s not here.”

                “What do you mean he’s not here?” Grimmjow demanded. “That’s Respira!”

                “She’s right.” Ulquiorra said after a moment’s pause. “The reiatsu of Respira is here, but not the reiatsu of Barragan. He appears to have discovered a way to project Respira hundreds of miles away from his actual location.”

                “At the very least.” Haruhi said in agreement, running for the stairs that led to the observation tower. The others followed behind her, Grimmjow turning to grin at Cirucci as they ran.

                “Hey, did you and Haruhi…?”

                “Really? Just…really?” Cirucci demanded.

                “What do you want me to do?” Grimmjow demanded. “Panic? I can’t do anything about Respira, that’s Haruhi’s territory. There’s no point in worrying about shit like this, so why not ask about something like that?” Cirucci sighed, though she really couldn’t his logic too much. It made a certain twisted kind of sense.

                “No.” She said shortly. Grimmjow nodded, deciding not to push her anymore for the moment. They reached the top of the tower, and Haruhi stared at the black wave in shock. The others all looked at her in concern. They had never seen Haruhi look…worried before, not even during the war. But now, there was denying it. She looked worried.

                “It’s too big.” She said softly.

                “What?” Lilynette demanded. “What do you mean it’s too big?”

                “I meant that it’s too big!” Haruhi yelled. “I can’t stop it! Everything we’ve built and fought for these past six years is going to be destroyed, and I can’t do anything about it!” The others all looked at her silently, letting her vent her emotions. For them, Las Riquezas was a home and a safe haven, true, but it meant more to Haruhi. She was the only one of them to remember her previous life, and she’d been a small child when she died. For her, Hueco Mundo hadn’t seemed to be a natural place like it had for them, it had been a hostile desert where everything wanted to eat her. She’d been strong enough that nothing had really been a threat to her, but the fact remained that the main reason she’d built Las Riquezas was so she’d have a piece of stability in her life. As close as she was to her inner circle of friends, living beings weren’t the same as walls and a roof.

                “Don’t worry.” Nelliel said soothingly, placing her hands on Haruhi’s shoulders and looking her in the eye.

                “Yeah, we’ll come back and kick Barragan’s ass for this.” Grimmjow reassured her. “See how much he likes his palace getting ripped to pieces.” Haruhi looked at her friends, then nodded.

                “Right. Mental breakdown later.” She said, clapping her hands and looking at the steadily approaching wave that was Respira. “Okay, on the plus side, that thing is slow. How long do you think we have Ulquiorra?” The pale Espada looked at the wave, then at the ground, calculating.

                “A minute and a half.” He said after a second.

                “Alright, plenty of time with sonido.” Haruhi said confidently. “Guys, pack up anything you want to take with you, don’t forget the hammock Starrk, I’m going to get some bananas, and then we’ll be on our way.” The others looked at her, confused.

                “Where are we going?” Cirucci asked.

                “Why the world of the living of course! Karakura Town to be specific.” Haruhi said as if it were obvious. “Now stop asking silly questions and go, we don’t have much time!” The others rushed back downstairs, using sonido to grab everything important and Haruhi grabbing anything they’d missed that she felt was important. “Now then, let’s go!” Haruhi said, opening a garganta with her bare feet, her arms occupied with holding a literal bunch of bananas, a backpack full of clothes, and a rubber duck.

_Karakura Town-One minute later_

                Urahara blinked in surprise as seven hollows utterly ignored his wards and teleported right into his shop. He stood up, then relaxed as he realized that one of the Hollows was Haruhi. “What would your parents say if they knew that you were using your powers to break into shops Haruhi-chan?” He asked jokingly.

                “From what I remember, Dad would be melodramatic for a while then congratulate me and Mom would scold me for a little while then move on, especially once she got to know you.” Haruhi said brightly. “Now, where can I find a house big enough for seven people?”

                “Well that depends on whether or not you want to be comfortable. If you do, then I know just the place. If you don’t, then I’m afraid I can’t help you.”

                “Why would we want a place that wasn’t comfortable?” Cirucci demanded. Urahara shrugged and opened his fan, hiding his face behind it.

                “Well, I’ve never met you. For all I know, all of you could be masochists.” Despite the fan, they could hear his smile.

                “What’s a masochist?” Haruhi asked.

                “Don’t worry about it.” Nelliel, Starrk, and Cirucci said simultaneously before Urahara or Grimmjow could ‘enlighten’ her.

                “I happen to own a currently abandoned warehouse that is perfect for you. It’ll be easy to do a few quick renovations and make it perfect within the week.” Urahara said, deciding to cut the jokes before one of the Arrancar in front of him decided to hurt him. He’d bought the warehouses on either side of the one the Visoreds currently called home just to be on the safe side, though there wasn’t any need to mention that to them. He’d probably need to mention it to Shinji though, just to be on the safe side.

                “Excellent. We’ll need gigais too.” Haruhi said happily. Urahara blinked.

                “Okay, what exactly happened?” He asked.

                “Aizen somehow modified Barragan’s power Respira to completely destroy my home of Las Riquezas.” Haruhi said matter of factly.

                “You seem rather calm about it.” Urahara remarked. Haruhi shrugged.

                “Whenever I start to get upset, I just picture myself eating Barragan and ripping Aizen to pieces. Cheers me right up.” She said.

                “…Oddly enough, I’m totally okay with that plan.” Urahara said after a moment’s thought. “I’ll have Tessai get to work on that warehouse, and the gigais will be ready by Monday.”

_Los Noches-Five minutes later_

                Aizen removed the Hōgyoku from the machine, satisfied. He’d seen the power of Barragan’s Respira. With the increase in power given by his Hōgyoku, there was no chance that Haruhi had survived. He smiled, glad to be rid of another thorn in his side. Soon his plans would be ready to put into effect, and now the only one with enough power to have any chance at all of stopping him was Yamamoto. His grin widened and he walked out of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the note of the members of Haruhi’s inner circle’s Fraccion. They don’t have them. On Nelliel’s Fraccion, Pesche and Dondochakka, I figured that Haruhi was enough extra comic relief, and that Nelliel just met Haruhi before she met them. (I’ll admit that I don’t read the extra data books, just the wiki and the manga itself, so sorry if that deviates from the actual story and Nelliel met them immediately upon arriving in Hueco Mundo.) On Grimmjow’s Fraccion, let’s assume that he did eat them back when they were all Adjuchas, and as for Cirucci…I frankly had no idea that she ever had Fraccions, at least that we saw. I can’t find anything on Google either, so I’m rather at a loss here.
> 
> Thanks for reading guys! See you next time!


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer-I don’t own Bleach

Chapter Seven

                “Is it ready yet?” Haruhi asked excitedly. Urahara nodded and guided her to where her gigai was waiting. He’d made subtle changes to it of course, to make sure that she’d look less like a female Ichigo and to keep the mask fragment hidden, but it still resembled her enough that Ichigo and Rukia would recognize her, something she’d insisted on. Haruhi smiled happily and slipped into the gigai, then picked up her duffel bag. “Where’s the bathroom? I need to change.”

                “Down that hallway, first door on your right.” Urahara said, pointing her in the right direction. Tessai looked down at him as she entered the bathroom.

                “But isn’t she planning on going to Kurosaki-san’s school?” The large man asked. Urahara nodded. “Does she have the uniform?”

                “I doubt it.” Urahara said gleefully. Tessai stared at him, and then sighed. “Relax. It’s not like she plans on listening to what the teacher has to say, she just wants to be close to her brother. Besides, from what I hear Ichigo’s teacher’s a little nuts. I doubt she’ll care.” Urahara said, waving a hand lazily. A minute later, Haruhi exited the room in the clothes she’d chosen. Urahara and Tessai both sweatdropped upon seeing her. Her clothes were…weird, even by Urahara’s standards. She had no shoes on and jeans, neither of which were _too_ bad. On the other hand however, she was wearing a grey shirt with Donald Duck on it, a red flannel blouse over it, a brown suit jacket over _that_ , and had her floppy hat on. She smiled at them, apparently not noticing the looks on their faces, slung the duffel bag over her shoulder, and walked off.

                “I think her teacher might have a problem with that.” Tessai said finally. Urahara nodded.

_Karakura High School-Ten minutes later_

                Ichigo was sitting in his desk, leaning back to ask Chad a question about the last night’s homework when Haruhi walked in. At first he just stared at the new girl’s rather random sense of dress, and then he looked at her face. He frowned. It looked uncomfortably familiar. The teacher said something to her (he couldn’t hear what) the new girl smiled, and he fell out of his chair. It took every ounce of his self-control not to get up and demand to know what his sister was doing here. As it was, he settled for quickly getting back in his chair and staring, which was easy enough to hide, as everyone else was staring at her as well. He wasn’t able to muffle the groan that escaped his mouth, though nobody seemed to notice, or least they didn’t call him on it.

                “Hi!” Haruhi said brightly when it came time for her to introduce herself. “My name is Eiichiro Haruhi, my family and I just moved here, and we’ll probably be moving again after summer break.” With that, she went and sat down right behind Ichigo, completely oblivious to the weird looks her clothes were attracting; though she did take her hat off once she sat down.

                “What the hell are you doing here?” Ichigo hissed, turning around to look at her.

                “Later.” She whispered. “Sheesh, it’s like you have no idea how to keep a secret.” Ichigo glared at her, but turned around anyway.

_Karakura High School-One hour later_

                “Now, explain.” Ichigo growled, folding his arms. He and Rukia had cornered Haruhi during the lunch break, making sure they were alone first of course. Haruhi shrugged.

                “I don’t get what’s hard to understand about this. I mean, you should know what a gigai is. By the way, did you figure out your Shikai yet? Or at least your zanpakuto’s name? Admittedly, I’m not sure how you could in fact know the name of your zanpakuto and not know how to use your Shikai, but I’m sure it’s possible.” She said. Then she looked up. “Oop, looks like I have neighbors now. I should say hello.” With that Haruhi rushed off, neatly dodging Rukia’s attempts to stop her. Ichigo and Rukia stared in the direction she’d left.

                “Your sister gives me a headache.” Rukia told Ichigo, sighing.

                “…Yeah.” Ichigo admitted, matching her sigh.

_Karakura Town-Fifteen minutes later_

                The Visoreds were sitting together eating lunch, which Shinji and Lisa had just fetched, when Hachi stiffened. “What’s wrong?” Shinji asked, still eating. After all, if whatever it was was a huge threat, Hachi wouldn’t have been the only one to notice.

                “A Hollow is testing my barriers.” The large man said, standing up.

                “So?” Kinsei asked, raising an eyebrow.

                “It immediately knew the barriers were there. It completely ignored the distraction Kido I put up.” Hachi said gravely heading up the stairs. The others looked at each other, then followed him. Occasionally Hollows had butted up against the barriers and had been strong enough to decide to throw themselves at it a few times, but it was always an accident on the Hollow’s part. This though, was apparently deliberate. They walked outside to the ‘porch’ and stared. The barrier was almost completely caved in at one part of the barrier, seemingly the result of the young girl who was poking it and making it jiggle like jello, removing her finger so that it’d snap back into place and giggling.

                “Ooh, that’s clever.” She said, the barrier preventing her from seeing them. “It’s like elastic. It stretches instead of trying to stay firm, very nice. I wonder…” She looked up at the top of the barrier, and the Visoreds had the distinct impression that she was considering jumping up and seeing if she could use the barrier as a trampoline before shaking her head. “No, that’d be rude.” She decided, then knocked.

                “Okay, what the hell?” Hiyori demanded. “You said there was a Hollow out here. Who’s this bitch?”

                “She is the Hollow.” Hachi said gravely. The others blinked, processing this.

                “Oh, so it’s one of those Arrancar thingys that Urahara told us about?” Mashiro concluded. Hiyori sighed and kicked her sandal up into the air, catching it.

                “Okay, I’ll take care of this.” She growled. “Hachi, open up a hole.” Hachi glanced at Shinji, who shrugged.

                “What the hell, we’ll be right here if something goes wrong.” Hachi sighed and nodded, opening up a hole with a wave of his hand and a quick incantation.

                “Oi, get out of here!” Hiyori snapped, swinging her sandal at the Hollow, who grabbed her arm at the last second before it hit her.

                “Hey, be careful there! You might hurt that banana, which would be a shame since it’s a really good one. And one of the last that I managed to rescue from Las Riquezas.” The Hollow told her. Hiyori’s glared up at her, confused, then her eyes widened as she realized that the Hollow had somehow managed to replace her sandal with a banana.

                “Give me back my sandal!” She snapped.

                “And why would I do that? I mean, you just tried to hit me with it after all. And what kind of idea is that anyway? ‘Oh, somebody’s knocking on my door, let me go slap them with my sandal!’ Seriously, what were you thinking when you did that? Though I will give you points for somehow making that seem remotely intimidating. But, back to my original point. Why would I give you back your sandal when you’ll just hit me with it?”

                “Because if you don’t, she’ll just squeeze that banana until it explodes once she gets over the shock induced coma you just put her in.” Shinji pointed out, sticking his head out of the hole Hiyori had exited through. The Hollow’s eyes widened.

                “Good point.” She said, swapping out the banana for the sandal again. This time Shinji was watching closely, so he saw her do it, but it was still damn fast. “Oh, I’m Kurosaki Haruhi.” She said, pocketing the banana. “What’s your name?”

                “Hirako Shinji. And the midget is Sarugaki Hiyori.”

                “Hey!” Hiyori yelled, whirling around and slapping him with her sandal. “Don’t call me a midget! And stop being so friendly with the damn Hollow!”

                “I have a name you know. I kind of just told you it.” Haruhi said, sounding rather put out.

                “I don’t care.” Hiyori snapped. Shinji blinked in surprise as the Hollow began to pout. That…was not something he’d ever expected to see.

                “What do you want?” He asked. This Hollow didn’t really act like the typical, run of the mill Hollow, so he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and not assume she wanted to eat them. Haruhi shrugged.

                “I felt your reiatsu from over by the high school, so I figured I’d come say hello since we’re going to be neighbors pretty soon.”

                “Neighbors?” He asked, confused. She nodded.

                “Yeah, Hat and Clogs is letting my friends and I stay in the warehouse next door.” She pointed at the warehouse in question, and Shinji smirked at the nickname. “He didn’t mention neighbors though, which was rather rude of him. I suppose he can afford to be rude though, since it’s not like he has Nelliel there all the time to be all scary and motherly whenever he’s rude.” She paused for a second, possibly to catch her breath, then glanced at her watch. “Oh, well it’s time for me to go. I’ll be seeing you later!” She said happily, running off. Shinji pulled his head back into the barrier.

                “Well, that was…”

                “Different?” Love suggested.

                “Yeah, that’ll do.” Shinji said, heading back inside. “Come on, our food’s getting cold.”

                “What the hell?” Hiyori demanded. “You’re just going to go back to your food?”

                “She didn’t seem hostile.” Shinji said with a shrug. “And if she does attack, what do you want to do, fight something that can push Hachi’s barrier kido to the limit without really trying on an empty stomach?” Hiyori paused, then sighed as her stomach growled.

                “Fine.”

_Karakura Town-Sixteen hours later_

                Haruhi glanced at the calendar Nelliel had pinned to the wall of their hotel suite. “Oh hey, it’s June 17th!” She said, looking around for the glove Urahara had given them to get out of their gigais. She found it easily and pressed it, letting the gigai fall to the ground as she went for the window.

                “What’s so special about June 17th?” Cirucci asked curiously.

                “That’s the day I died.” Haruhi said simply, jumping out the window. She let herself fall down to just above the level of the tallest semi and headed towards where she thought the cemetery was. She’d never been to visit her grave before, since time tended to blur in Hueco Mundo, but now was as good a time as any to check it out.

                It took her a bit longer than she’d expected, but she found the cemetery roughly were she’d figured it would be. What she hadn’t expected though, was to feel Ichigo’s reiatsu already there, or the comparatively low reiatsu of the rest of her family. “What are they doing here?” She asked, perching on a tree branch that gave her a good view of the grave and her family.

                “What do you think they’re doing?” Rukia snorted from her spot below Haruhi, startling the girl. “They’re here to remember their dead daughter.” Haruhi blinked and looked down at the short Shinigami.

                “Why?” She asked, puzzled. Now it was Rukia’s turn to stare in confusion.

                “What do you mean, why?”

                “Well, thanks to Ichigo and me, they know that ghosts exist, and that they eventually move on. Since they never saw my ghost, surely they assume that I moved on. And I doubt they’d assume that a 9 year old did anything worthy of going to Hell, so…why are they still sad?”

                “You’ve mentioned friends before.” Rukia said slowly. “Would you be sad if they died?”

                “Well, yeah, but that’s different. If a Hollow _dies_ dies, not just purified by a Shinigami, than that’s it. They’re gone forever. That’s not the case here though, they know that there’s an afterlife I went to.” Rukia looked up at her, not sure what to say. Haruhi acted so human that at times she almost forgot that Ichigo’s sister was a Hollow and operated off of a different psychology than a human or Shinigami.

                “They’re not mourning because you’re dead.” Ichigo said quietly from the other side of the tree. “Not really.” Haruhi frowned and walked over to where he was.

                “What do you mean?” She asked, curious.

                “It’s hard to explain, but it’s like this. When you died, did you miss us?” Ichigo asked.

                “Of course!” Haruhi said. “If it hadn’t been for my friends, I’d probably be an emo Hollow right now instead of a clown Hollow.”

                “And would you be upset if one day your friends disappeared without any way for you to contact them for at least forty years as if they’d died?”

                “Yeah, but…oh.” Haruhi said, nodding. “I get what you mean. By the way, won’t Mom notice that you’re missing?”

                “You mean Mom _and_ Dad?” Haruhi shook her head.

                “No, just Mom. Dad would probably forget you.” Both siblings smiled as they remembered the time their dad had forgotten them at the grocery store. Their mom had beaten him up, rushed over to get them, and then proceeded to never let him live it down.

                “Nah, I wander off like this every year. Eventually they decided to just leave me alone and let me work off my ‘angst’ by myself so I wouldn’t end up snapping at the twins or anything.” Ichigo paused, then grinned up at his sister, who’d gotten sick of standing in midair and settled down on another branch. “By the way, I discovered my sword’s name. Zangetsu.” Haruhi grinned. He still couldn’t beat her, but maybe now he’d be able to offer her some surprises.

                “Cool. What’s your Shikai look like?” She asked. Ichigo smiled even wider.

                “I don’t have one.”

                “You seem rather happy for someone without a Shikai, especially now that you know  what a Shikai is.” Haruhi remarked.

                “Turns out, I’ve got so much reiatsu that my sword can’t be sealed. It’s always in Shikai.” Haruhi mulled it over. One the one hand, that was a little disappointing since she wouldn’t get to see a cool new released form for Ichigo’s zanpakuto. On the other hand, he had to have at least learned his zanpakuto’s Shikai ability.

                “Alright, we can spar again tomorrow. Just so you know, I’m actually going to use my zanpakuto this time.” Ichigo grinned. Before he could say anything though, their mom called out for him.

                “Ichigo! Honey, it’s time to go home!” Masaki called out. Haruhi stiffened. Her hearing wasn’t the greatest, and as a result of that and the fact that she’d always hovered just out of earshot so that Ichigo wouldn’t notice her, it had been six years since she’d heard her mother’s voice.

                “Coming Mom!” Ichigo yelled back. He paused, noticing the look on Haruhi’s face. “You know,” He said slowly. “You’ve got that gigai now, and I can honestly say that you’re a member of my class. If you want, I could probably get permission to bring you over for dinner tomorrow…” Haruhi’s face lit up, and she glomped Ichigo.

                “Yes! Yes yes yes! Thank you!” Ichigo stiffened as Haruhi started to lift him off the ground.

                “Uh, Haruhi? Breathing’s becoming an issue.” He gasped. Haruhi let go of him immediately, blushing.

                “Sorry, it’s just…Sorry.” She said running off excitedly. Ichigo rolled his eyes, but Masaki and Isshin both noticed that he was smiling when he joined them.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer-I don’t own Bleach

Chapter Eight

                Ichigo stared up at the hotel. He frowned, not sure he’d gotten the address right. He shrugged and walked inside and into the elevator. Worst case scenario, he’d end up annoying some stranger that would be leaving in a matter of weeks. A minute later, he reached the top floor of the hotel and knocked on the door bearing the room number Haruhi had given him. He’d wanted to just meet up after school, but Haruhi had insisted that he come and meet her friends, saying that it would make it easier for them to spar anyways. Ichigo had reluctantly agreed and, after calling his mom to make sure everything was fine and that his dad was completely in the dark about the fact that he’d be visiting a girl’s home before bringing her home for dinner. Before his thoughts could go any further though, a man opened the door. Ichigo blinked. He was used to weirdness now, his life having gotten ridiculously eccentric since Rukia and Haruhi entered the picture, but this was a little ridiculous. The dude had blue hair for heaven’s sake!

                “Like you’re one to talk ‘natural bleach’ boy.” The man growled.

                “Well, since my hair color is at least in the realms of possibility, yes, I’d say I have plenty of room to talk.” Ichigo retorted. The man growled again, not saying anything, choosing instead to just glare at Ichigo.

                “Grimmjow, stop it.” A woman’s voice called out reproachfully.

                “No, let them go at it.” A young girl said. “If he gets a new rival, maybe he’ll stop attacking Cirucci.”

                “I don’t think trying to kill Haruhi’s brother would be a big improvement over trying to kill Cirucci.” A morose sounding young man said.

                “Oi, stop talking like I’m not in hearing range!” Grimmjow snapped, stepping to the side to let Ichigo in.

                “Hi!” Haruhi said happily, walking out of one of the side rooms, a young woman with purple hair following her. “I see you’ve met Grimmjow already. By the way, Grimmjow, you’re not allowed to make my brother your rival. Now, introductions. Ichigo, this is Nelliel, the scariest person in the room,” At this, the green haired woman in question rolled her eyes, and then gave Ichigo a kind smile. “That’s Starrk, our resident hobo,” A tall man he assumed was Starrk said nothing, just lying down on the couch. “Lilynette, his nagging little sister,” The little green haired girl sat down on Starrk’s stomach and stuck her tongue out at Haruhi. “That’s Ulquiorra, our only sane member,” The pale skinned young man raised a hand in greeting, and Ichigo thought the corners of his mouth _might_ have twitched slightly upwards, as if his face was trying to decide whether or not to smile. “And this is Cirucci, my girlfriend.” The purple haired young woman put an arm around Haruhi’s shoulders, smiling. Ichigo blinked, and then blinked again, not sure how to process _that_ particular piece of news. Cirucci gave him a glare, as if daring him to say something, so he decided not to say anything.  “Everybody, this is my little brother Ichigo. Ready to go?” Haruhi asked, seemingly oblivious to the possibility that she’d said anything that might give Ichigo reason to pause.

                “What? Yeah, let’s go.” Ichigo said, shaking his head. Haruhi smiled, gave Cirucci a quick kiss on the cheek, and walked out of the room, closely followed by Ichigo. Ichigo finally noticed Haruhi’s clothes, and he sweatdropped. “Really Haruhi, really? I tell you to dress normally, and to you that just means taking off the jacket?”

                “I put on shoes.” Haruhi said defensively. He sighed.

 “Give me the hat and the flannel shirt.” He said, holding a hand out. Haruhi glared at him.

“You can have the flannel shirt.” She said grudgingly, taking it off. He nodded and stuffed it in his backpack.

“Now give me the hat.” He said, holding out his hand and speaking as if talking to a stubborn child.

“No way, not after what I saw you do to my poor shirt.” Haruhi said stubbornly, folding her arms. Ichigo sighed and decided to give up. The hat wasn’t _too_ bad, and Haruhi had been incredibly stubborn when they were both still kids. There wasn’t any reason to assume that she’d gotten less stubborn.

“Fine, let’s just go.”

“Okay. And then we spar after dinner?” Ichigo nodded, and then grinned.

“You’re going down.” Haruhi laughed.

“Ooh, somebody’s confident.” She said, pinching his cheek. “Have I still not shown you my full reiatsu?”

“No, you decided to cut our last spar short so Hat and Clogs could teach me Shikai.” Ichigo reminded her, pushing her away.

“Oh please, even if I hadn’t, I’d never have gone all out against you. My Reiatsu alone would kill you; I wouldn’t even have had to draw my zanpakuto.”

“Now who’s confident?” Ichigo growled. Haruhi laughed.

“Personal experience little brother. I won entire battles without even having to unsheathe my zanpakuto in the first war with Barragan.” She told him.

“First war? As in, there were more than one? How many wars can you fight in six years?” Ichigo asked, confused.

“You’d be surprised. But nah, we’ve only just begun the second war, though I doubt Barragan realizes it.”

“Who’s Barragan?” Ichigo demanded, a little annoyed that Haruhi seemed to just assume he knew who that was.

“Oh, right, I never did explain who he was, did I? Sorry, sometimes I forget that what’s famous in Hueco Mundo isn’t famous anywhere else. You’d be surprised at how many times I’ve been able to avoid fighting Shinigami just because they can’t believe that Arrancar actually exist, or that I’m also a Vasto Lorde and so they just tend to stare and gawk and I conk them on the head and make them forget and then I just run off. No point in unnecessarily pissing of the Gotei 13. Anyway, my original point…I’ve actually forgotten it, though I’m sure it was a sharp one, how embarrassing.” Ichigo opened his mouth to get her back on track, but Haruhi spoke again, cutting him off. “Oh right, Barragan. Yeah, he’s an old Arrancar who thinks he’s the God of Hueco Mundo because he has the power to make things decay just by hitting them with a black cloud. That’s why we’re all here and not back in Hueco Mundo, he destroyed the entire kingdom with his powers.”

“How did you win if he could just destroy an entire kingdom with one attack?” Ichigo asked, curious and, though he’d never admit it, a little scared.

“Oh, he can’t normally do that, the cheater just got a power boost from something or other. He must still be upset about me kicking his ass in the last battle.”

“No.” Ichigo said sarcastically. Haruhi shrugged.

“I know right? You’d think he’d have moved on by now, I only took half of his territory after all.” She said. She stopped talking though, once she reached their destination, staring silently at the house.

“You okay?” Ichigo asked quietly, walking up so he was standing next to her. Haruhi gave him a big grin.

“I’m fine.” She told him brightly. “Now then, what’s my name?” Ichigo just stared at her uncomprehendingly, and she sighed. “Please tell me that you didn’t tell them that my name was Haruhi.”

“Oh!” Ichigo said, nodding his understanding. “No, I told them your name was Rukia.” Haruhi stared at him, and he sighed. “Look, I forgot that I couldn’t tell them your real name until they asked for your name. I had to hurry up so that I wouldn’t seem suspicious, so I just said the first girl name that I knew they wouldn’t recognize.” Haruhi smiled.

“Ooh, Rukia’s not going to be happy about this. She still doesn’t trust me, have you noticed that? I wonder why that is, I thought I’d made it pretty clear I wasn’t going to attack anybody. Oh well, I’ll just have to settle for figuring that out on another day, shall we go inside?” Ichigo nodded and walked ahead of her, opening the door and letting them in.

“Oh, and here is the mysterious girl!” Their dad yelled, jumping in front of them. Ichigo sighed, but Haruhi smiled. Amazingly enough, she’d actually missed this. Isshin noticed the picture of Donald Duck on her shirt, blinked, then grinned. “So tell me mystery girl, what’s your name?” He asked in a perfect Donald Duck impersonation. Ichigo groaned, but Haruhi grinned even wider.

“Eiichiro Rukia.” She said, doing her own Donald Duck impersonation and giving a little bow. Ichigo stared at them, not sure how to react. Their mom walked up then, cutting their father off.

“Hello, I’m Ichigo’s mother, Masaki.” She said, holding her hand out. Haruhi shook it, smiling happily, and Ichigo let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He’d been afraid that Haruhi, being as or maybe even less sensible than Orihime, would do something that would give the jig up. Fortunately, she remained calm and steady, though she was very noticeably happy. Their parents had met Orihime though, so they probably wouldn’t notice anything as being weird, or at least they wouldn’t say anything. He was actually pleasantly surprised at Haruhi’s behavior. For once, she was actually acting like a sane and rational person, being very careful not to say anything that a friend of Ichigo’s wouldn’t reasonably know. In fact, everything was going great. Haruhi was clearly delighted to be spending time with her family again and fit right in, and none of them seemed to notice that anything was amiss.

And then Isshin decided to open his mouth.

“So Ichigo…” He said slowly, a big smile on his face. Ichigo froze, and Haruhi looked a little wary, though she continued to eat. Whenever their dad started to act like this, nothing good could happen. “You’ve never brought a girl home for dinner before. Is there something…going on?” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at this last part. Ichigo and Haruhi both did a spit take, somehow managing to get everything on Isshin’s face, and only his face. Karin and Yuzu both started laughing, and Masaki sighed, though she was curious. Ichigo had in fact invited both Tatsuki and Orihime over on occasion when they needed to work on homework together, and Isshin had made similar remarks. Those times though, Ichigo had just seemed frustrated and exasperated, as had Tatsuke, while Orihime seemed oblivious. The look on Haruhi and Ichigo’s faces though was less one of exasperation or annoyance than it was a look of… horror? Now, that was interesting. Ichigo and Haruhi both stood up and all but fled from the house.

“Thanks for dinner it was really good bye!” Haruhi called behind her, grabbing her hat as she and Ichigo left. Isshin frowned after them.

“What was that all about?” He asked Masaki. He’d expected Ichigo to react in some form of violence, but he hadn’t expected that reaction. Masaki frowned thoughtfully.

“I’m not entirely sure.” She admitted.

_Karakura Town-Five minutes later_

“What the hell is wrong with him?” Ichigo demanded when the two finally came to a stop, both panting heavily.

“I don’t know, you’re the one who’s actually spent the last six years with him!” Haruhi yelled back.

“To be fair, he didn’t know that Haruhi was Haruhi.” Rukia said. She’d been eavesdropping on the conversation, ready to step in with her kikanshinki if Haruhi screwed up, and had followed them when they fled the house.

“Don’t be fair to our dad when he’s suggesting we date!” The twins yelled at her. They stood there in silence, forcing themselves to calm down.

“Wanna spar now?” Haruhi asked, pulling out her glove.

“Yes.” Ichigo said quickly. Anything to distract himself. Haruhi nodded and hit him on the back, then hit herself.

“Ready?” Haruhi asked, drawing her zanpakuto, a slim katana with a blue sheen to the blade and a black hilt, from her scabbard. Ichigo grinned and drew Zangetsu.

“Of course.” No sooner had the words escaped his lips then Haruhi was attacking, swinging her zanpakuto right for his head. Ichigo’s eyes widened, and he only barely managed to block her attack.

“Nice. I mean, that was a pretty weak attack on my part, but still, not bad for someone who’s only been doing this for two months.” Haruhi commented, jumping back and swinging at his legs. Ichigo jumped back and scowled. This was not going according to plan. He hadn’t been sure that he’d win the spar, since she had the benefit of experience, but he’d never thought she’d put him on the defensive from the very first attack. “Tired already?” Haruhi asked with a smile, following up with a flurry of attacks.

“You wish.” Ichigo growled lashing out with Zangetsu. To his surprise, he actually managed to land a hit on her right shoulder, though it didn’t cut her skin or even her clothes.

“Ah, Hierro, my favorite power.” Haruhi said with a grin, swinging her zanpakuto and stopping the blade just before cutting Ichigo, leaving it so close that Ichigo could feel it. “Come on little brother, if your zanpakuto is always in Shikai mode then it should have a power, right?”

“Well, I do, but it’s a bit too destructive.” Ichigo said. “The last time I tried it it made the Grand Canyon under Hat and Clogs’ shop.  Using it in Karakura Town isn’t a good plan.” Haruhi nodded.

“Point. Well then,” She did…something with her zanpakuto, knocking Zangetsu out of Ichigo’s hand and gave him a relatively gentle Spartan Kick, knocking him to the ground. “I win. See you tomorrow!” She picked up her gigai and ran off, disappearing. Ichigo stared after her, and then turned to look at Rukia.

“You know, one of these days she’s going to walk away instead of running, and I’ll be very surprised.” Rukia rolled her eyes.

“That’ll never happen. Your sister is stuck on permanent fast forward.” Ichigo picked up Zangetsu, looking thoughtful.

“I don’t know, sometimes it seems like an act.” He said, getting back into his body. “Oh well, time to get back home.”

_Kurosaki Clinic/Home-Ten minutes later_

“Hey Ichigo!” Isshin yelled excitedly as his son entered the house. “What was all that about? All I did was ask if you and Rukia-chan were dating!” Ichigo glanced at him, punched him in the face, and continued upstairs, shuddering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I sincerely hope Isshin doesn’t know about Haruhi yet, because if he does, that would make him the creepiest Troll ever.
> 
> Thanks for reading guys! See you next time!


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer-I don’t own Bleach

Chapter Nine

                “You know, I don’t think you’re allowed to bring the furniture from the hotel room when you leave it.” Urahara told Haruhi as she and Grimmjow carefully backed the bed out of the window.

                “Oh please, if that wasn’t allowed, then why wouldn’t they bolt it to the ground?” Grimmjow asked. “Besides, the window fits the bed perfectly.”

                “Perhaps, but I’d like to point out that we’re twelve stories up, and you had to knock out part of the wall as well.” Urahara deadpanned.

                “He’s right.” Nelliel said reasonably.

                “Says the Arrancar carrying a flatscreen.” Urahara pointed out. Nelliel rolled her eyes. She was indeed holding the flatscreen from their hotel suite, though it wasn’t entirely by choice.

                “Got it!” Haruhi yelled triumphantly, holding the bed over her head with both hands. “Go get the mini fridge and the microwave.”

                “I already got them.” Cirucci told her, walking out the window. “Go get the couch.” Grimmjow rolled his eyes, but went back to the living room. Urahara sweatdropped as Haruhi and her friends proceeded to clean out the hotel room, taking everything.

                “I think we’ll have to leave this nightstand behind.” Ulquiorra said, nodding at the piece of furniture in question as his arms were full, with a dresser in each.

                “Don’t be stupid.” Grimmjow said, rolling his eyes. “Just open the door and wear it on your head.” Ulquiorra glared at him, and Lilynette picked it up, sighing.

                “I can carry stuff too you know.” She said, sticking her tongue out at Grimmjow. Urahara sighed.

                “Are you done committing Grand Theft Furniture?” He asked. Haruhi looked around, doing a quick inventory of everything they’d grabbed, then nodded.

                “Yeah, I think that’ll do for now.” She said, smiling. Urahara sighed again.

                “Alright, let’s get out of here before the maids come to clean up after you.” He said, walking in the direction of the warehouses. They were about halfway there when the seven Arrancar stiffened, looking around in surprise. “What’s wrong?”

                “Someone just threw out…what is that?” Haruhi asked, looking at Nelliel and Starrk, the oldest of the group. Nelliel sniffed the air.

                “It smells like Hollow Bait.” She said, frowning. “But the only people who use that are Quincies, and they’ve been extinct for years now. And who’d be stupid enough to use so much of it in a city full of humans?” Haruhi sighed.

                “Let’s hurry up and put this furniture in the warehouse, then we’ll go see what’s going on.” She told them, using Sonido to travel faster.

                “Do we have to actually do something about this?” Grimmjow muttered, following her. “I mean, what are we, Shinigami?”

                “Look at it this way-all you can eat Hollow Buffet.” Cirucci said with a shrug.

                “Good point.” Grimmjow said, grinning.

_Karakura Town-Ten minutes later_

                Ichigo charged, slicing through three Hollows at once and continuing on, cursing Ishida all the while. He was just glad Hat and Clogs had given him one of those gloves that Rukia and Haruhi had after completing his Shikai training, or else this would have been even worse than it already was. A Hollow jumped at him, only to be blown to pieces by a burst of red energy. “Hey Ichigo, what’s up?” Grimmjow asked, smirking. Ichigo glared at him.

                “I’d say it’s pretty obvious what’s going on.” He said shortly. “Where’s Haruhi?” Grimmjow jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

                “The boss is clearing out the area around your house.” The blue haired Arrancar told him, dropping down so he was standing on the ground next to Ichigo. “You should probably get over there.” He continued, drawing his zanpakuto.

                “What about you?” Ichigo asked as he saw thirty or so Hollows charging at their location. He didn’t know the guy very well, but he was Haruhi’s friend, so that meant he didn’t want him to die. Grimmjow snorted.

                “How weak do you think I am?” He demanded. “This’ll be easy as hell. Now get going, Haruhi’ll kick your ass if you don’t go to protect your family.” Ichigo nodded and ran off in the direction of his house. One of the Hollows roared, and that got the rest of them roaring as they charged at him. Grimmjow rolled his eyes. “Come on then dumbasses!” He yelled. “Let’s see how well you measure up against the General of Las Riquezas!”

_Kurosaki Clinic/House-Fifteen minutes later_

                “You’re so slow little brother!” Haruhi yelled, glaring at him and punching a Hollow in the head. Ichigo winced as her fist went straight through its mask, killing it instantly.

                “Give me a break, I was on the other side of town and Hollows kept attacking me.” He growled, lashing out with Zangetsu and killing another Hollow.

                “Excuses excuses.” Haruhi said with a laugh, beheading another Hollow with her zanpakuto. “Now, the question of the hour is, do you know who used the Hollow Bait?”

                “Yeah, a kid from my class named Ishida Uryū .” Ichigo growled.

                “Why?”

                “Apparently he hates me and did it so that he could prove he was better than me.” Ichigo told her.

                “Really?” Haruhi said, surprised. “He put the entirety of Karakura Town at risk so he could validate himself? Duck.” Ichigo crouched as Haruhi lashed out with her zanpakuto, killing five Hollows that’d been getting ready to attack from behind him. “Shall we go teach him a little lesson?”

                “What about protecting the house?”

                “Relax, everything’s fine. My friends are all over the city killing Hollows. And since these guys are idiots, they’ll be going after the people with the highest reiatsu. Between them and us, none of the Hollows will bother regular people, and I doubt Karin has enough reiatsu for them to register her either.”

                “Well, in that case, yeah let’s go kick his ass!” Ichigo said with a feral grin. Haruhi smiled.

                “Wait a minute.” Urahara said, appearing in front of them. “There are a few things you need to know first.”

                “What’s there to know?” Ichigo demanded. “Ishida’s put the whole city in danger!”

                “And beating him up won’t remove the danger.” Urahara countered. “The Hollow Bait is in the air, and it’ll stay until it fades away. You won’t benefit at all by going in without knowing everything.” Haruhi looked at him for a moment, then sighed and folded her arms.

                “You have five minutes. Any more than that and I’ll start to get twitchy and we don’t want that.” Urahara nodded. He did _not_ want that.

_Elsewhere in Karakura Town-Six minutes later_

                Ishida’s eyes widened as a he sensed a large burst of Hollow reiatsu coming towards him. He’d sensed several abnormally strong Hollows in Karakura Town since crushing the bait, but they’d stayed away from him, instead focusing on killing the weaker Hollows. He figured he’d eliminate the small fry that wanted to attack the humans first, then move on to the stronger ones in hopes that they’d be worn out. This burst of reiatsu however, was stronger than any of the others. There was a burst of static, and suddenly a young woman that looked to be his age appeared in front of him, Ichigo slung over her shoulder. “We are never doing that again.” Ichigo said, looking queasy.

                “Fine you big baby, next time you can walk.” The girl said, sticking her tongue out at Ichigo. Ishida took advantage of her distraction, raising his bow and firing it at her head from point blank range. To his shock, the girl caught the arrow in her bare hand, flipped it around in her fingers, and threw it into a nearby Hollow’s head like a dart. “That was rude.” She said, shaking her head. “Now, Ichigo, talk to him.” She ordered, shoving Ichigo towards him.

                “What? What are you going to be doing?” The girl gestured at all the Hollows that were coming towards the three of them.

                “I’ll be making sure none of these guys interfere with your little heart to heart. After all, I’m not a Shinigami, so his issue is with you, not me. I’ll just be getting in the way.” With that, Haruhi Sonidoed into the middle of the group of Hollows that was charging at the two boys. The Hollows whirled around, and Haruhi just smiled and let loose a short burst of reiatsu, killing all of them in one go, then drew her zanpakuto as more charged at her. She let out a loud laugh and swung at them, killing ten of them before they even reached her. Five minutes later, she was still killing Hollows when Ichigo and Ishida joined her, stealing three of her kills. “Wow this is a lot of Hollows. How much Hollow Bait did you use Ishida? I mean, I can smell it, but there’s not nearly enough left to warrant this many Hollows. I wonder if Barragan figured out that my friends and I were alive and sent them here to try and kill us. But then again, I suppose these guys are all too weak for them to actually expect them to kill us, so that’s unlikely.”

                “Does your sister ever talk like a normal person Kurosaki?” Ishida demanded, shooting another Hollow in the head.

                “No.” Ichigo admitted. “Well, not often anyway. But don’t worry, you get used to it.” Ishida shuddered.

                “I hope not. I like to at least try and maintain my sanity.” He said firing two arrows at once.

                “Hey, I resemble that remark! I am completely sane!” Haruhi protested. Ishida snorted.

                “Please, I’ve known you for less than five minutes and I can already tell that you’re a complete lunatic.”

                “Hey, if you insist on pretending that I’m not sane, could you at least do me the courtesy of calling me a madwoman? Lunatic sounds too…loony.” Haruhi said indignantly.

                “I rest my case.” Ishida told Ichigo, who sighed.

                “He’s got a point Haruhi. You’re not exactly normal.”

                “Well, why would I want to be normal? Normal’s boring. Normal is playing football and doing homework, in that order, in the afternoon, sitting around and drinking tea on Sundays, dying of old age after doing absolutely nothing memorable. Good things come to those that aren’t normal.” Haruhi said happily. Suddenly, a roar filled the air. Haruhi groaned. “What the hell was in that Hollow Bait? How did you manage to attract a Gillian with it?”

                “What’s a Gillian?” Ichigo asked warily. Ishida frowned.

                “I am not familiar with that term either.” Haruhi pointed up as a garganta began to form above them.

                “That’s a Gillian.” She said as a massive Hollow with a pointed mask peered out of the garganta and immediately began to consume the remaining Hollows, all of whom had gathered around it. Ishida immediately opened fire on it with his bow, but it only seemed to alert the massive Hollow to their presence.

                “How can you be so calm?” Ichigo demanded, looking at Haruhi incredulously.

                “Simple. I have a plan. Now, I think I remember you saying that your zanpakuto could make the Grand Canyon, right?” Ichigo frowned, then grinned.

                “Yeah, I can.”

                “Good. Now then.” She placed a hand on Ishida’s shoulder. The Quincy’s eyes widened in shock as his bow grew to a ridiculous degree. “Oops, sorry, a bit too much, isn’t it. Here, let me tone it down a little, don’t worry, I’ll have it fixed in a tick tock.” She paused, and the bow shrunk. “There we go. Now, ready…aim…fire!” Ishida drew back his bowstring and fired, just as Ichigo swung his zanpakuto.

                “Getsuga Tenshō!” The Gillian, now barely still in one piece, quickly retreated back into the garganta.

                “Well, that was exciting.” Haruhi said happily, completely oblivious to how exhausted Ichigo and Ishida were. “Which reminds me.” She made a fist and brought it down like a hammer on the back of Ishida’s head, pulling it back so it did almost no damage, though it did hurt.

                “What was that for?” Ishida demanded, massaging the back of his head.

                “Using what was apparently a very attractive piece of Hollow Bait in the middle of a crowded city.” Haruhi told him simply. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see if my friends left anything for me to eat, and then I’m going to get back to moving into our new house.” She Sonidoed out of the area, leaving the exhausted Ichigo and Ishida alone. Ishida opened his mouth, but Ichigo cut him off.

                “Yes, my sister’s insane, likes to move really fast, and is very strong.” He told the other boy. “Trust me, I know that by now.” Ishida shrugged.

                “Well, considering your intelligence level I felt that it couldn’t hurt to make sure you were aware of the situation.” He said, pushing his glasses up. Ichigo growled, too exhausted to do anything else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t worry, Chad and Orihime still went through everything they went through in the series, I just didn’t bring it up since absolutely nothing that happened was changed, and I dislike pointless recaps. It would have felt like padding. Also, I don’t think Haruhi made a single reference to bananas in this chapter! 
> 
> Thanks for reading guys! See you next time!


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer-I don’t own Bleach

Chapter Ten

                Haruhi relaxed on the couch playing paddle ball with a stolen set. “What are you doing?” Ulquiorra asked from behind her, where the others were playing poker.

                “Trying to figure out why people would think this is entertaining.” She said, effortlessly bouncing the ball off the paddle. The others looked at each other.

                “Wow, you’re really bad at your job.” Grimmjow told Cirucci, looking down at his cards.

                “My job?” Cirucci asked, giving him a suspicious look.

                “Being Haruhi’s girlfriend.”

                “When did that become a job?” Haruhi asked, frowning in confusion, but still bouncing the ball.

                “If it’s a job, why would you do it?” Starrk asked, folding.

                “It’s not a job!” Cirucci snapped. “And will you stop bouncing that stupid ball?”

                “Not until I answer the eternal question.” Haruhi said, frowning intently at the ball and the paddle.

                “It’s not entertaining to you because you’re good at it.” Nelliel told her. “The point is that it’s supposed to be hard to accomplish, a sort of physical puzzle.”

                “Ah. Well in that case-” Haruhi incinerated the paddle ball with a small cero, then got up and walked over to the fridge, grabbing a piece of chicken and popping it in her mouth. She swallowed and opened her mouth to say something, then stiffened. The others felt it a second later, and looked around. It was the reiatsu of a Captain class Shinigami and his Vice-Captain, and it was close. They weren’t concerned by the presence of the two though, not really. Every one of them except Lilynette could take the two Shinigami out by themselves, so they didn’t really pose a threat in the traditional sense. What concerned them was the fact that two high ranked Shinigami were in Karakura Town.

                “It’s only to be expected after what happened yesterday.” Ulquiorra said calmly, gathering the cards up. “Between the sheer number of Hollows that arrived, that Gillian, and the amount of reiatsu we were throwing around, it’s not surprising that Soul Society decided to investigate.”

                “It’d be pretty sad if they didn’t, really.” Nelliel said, nodding. Haruhi nodded, then groaned as she sensed them heading for Rukia’s minuscule reiatsu, which was fortunately pretty far from the Kurosaki home.

                “No, damn it!” She groaned. “Why are they going after her?” She grabbed the glove and hit herself with it, leaving the gigai, and headed for the door.

                “Where are you going?” Cirucci asked, confused.

                “They’re going towards a friend of Ichigo’s. You don’t send Captains and Vice Captains to ask questions, that’s what mooks are for. Whatever they want, it’s not nearly as simple as that. And since Rukia left the house, that means she knew who was coming, so she probably left without telling Ichigo, who’s probably going to leave and go after her any second now…and there he goes.” Haruhi sighed. “As the oldest sibling, it’s my job to make sure that my younger siblings don’t die.” She opened the door, only to find Urahara already there.

                “Please move.” Haruhi said politely, distracted by keeping an ‘eye’ on the events that were rapidly unfolding around her.

                “I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Urahara said, equally polite. “You see, what’s about to happen needs to happen.”

                “My brother _needs_ to die?” Haruhi growled, glaring at him.

                “My my, do you really have so little faith in Ichigo?” Urahara asked, smiling.

                “Huh, let’s think, a Captain and a Vice Captain vs. a Substitute Shinigami who’s only been doing this for two months. What do you think?” Haruhi demanded, placing a hand on the hilt of her zanpakuto. Urahara looked serious.

                “Look, I don’t like this anymore than you do, but the fact of the matter is that Ichigo needs this. You can’t fight his battles for him.”

                “I have not been fighting his battles for him!” Haruhi yelled angrily, glaring at the man in front of her. “The only fight I’ve stepped in on was against Shrieker, and that was for directly ignoring my orders. If anything, I’ve made him stronger. I’m the one who made you teach him about Shikai, remember?”

                “Perhaps that wasn’t the best choice of words.” Urahara said, backpedaling. “What I meant was this-in order to get stronger, Ichigo must lose this fight. You see,” He said quickly, preventing Haruhi from asking the obvious question. “The reason those two are here is because Rukia gave her powers to Ichigo, which is against the laws of Soul Society. They’ll take her back to be executed, but they’ll also remove her powers from Ichigo, turning him back into a normal human, albeit one that can see Pluses and Hollows. As he is now, using powers that aren’t fully his own, he’ll never reach his full strength. If what’s about to happen doesn’t happen, he’ll be killed by Aizen. He may even be killed by the first captain he comes across.”

                “What if you’re wrong and they just kill him now?” Haruhi asked softly. Urahara put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, his face softening.

                “That won’t happen. And if it does, Yoruichi and Tessai are standing watch right now, and I will be as well once I leave here. But I won’t leave until I have your word that you will not interfere.” Haruhi looked at him, and then sighed.

                “Very well, I won’t step in now. But when Ichigo goes off to Soul Society to save Rukia, I’m coming too.” Urahara smiled.

                “I wouldn’t expect anything less.” He said shunpoing away. Haruhi stared after him, and then turned around, shutting the door behind herself.

                “I’m going to bed.” She told the others, taking her hat off and tossing it on the couch. “If I don’t fall asleep, I’ll probably break my promise.”

_Urahara’s Shop-Twenty Hours Later_

                “How’s Ichigo’s training going?” Haruhi asked Urahara.

                “It’s actually going great.” Urahara told her. He completed the first stage surprisingly quickly, and because you insisted that I train him in Shikai the third stage should be a breeze. It’s actually given me time to prepare some tools for your upcoming field trip.”

                “Is anyone else coming?” Haruhi asked.

                “Yes, as a matter of fact, four people have decided to join you. Sado Yasutora, Inoue Orihime, Ishida Uryū, and Yoruichi.”

                “So, we’re going to invade Soul Society with a force consisting of one Shinigami, two humans, a Quincy, a Hollow, and a cat. Are you sure I didn’t come up with this plan?” Haruhi asked.

                “Nope.” Urahara said happily. “Now come along, I want to show you the second stage of Ichigo’s training, we’ve just begun.” Haruhi followed him down the ladder to the hidden training ground. “Well, what do you think?” He asked. Haruhi looked around.

                “It looks like Los Noches, if Los Noches had the Grand Canyon in it.” She said finally. Urahara frowned, annoyed to have something of his compared to something of Aizen’s, then sighed and decided to move on. Before he could say anything though, Haruhi noticed Ichigo’s body, and the fact that there wasn’t a Chain of Fate connecting the body to wherever Ichigo’s soul was. She glared at him, and Urahara shuddered, realizing that showing this stage of the process to Ichigo’s protective Hollow sister might not have been the best plan. “I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and beat the crap out of you right now. So, explain.”

                “The only way for Ichigo to regain his Shinigami powers in time to save Rukia is to do this.” Urahara quickly explained. “All powers are unlocked best when it’s done under the threat of death.”

                “What’ll we do if he actually becomes a Hollow?” Haruhi demanded.

                “We’ll purify him, and I’ll temporarily give him my powers so that he can continue on.” Urahara said simply.

                “And how do we explain this to my parents? Cause it’s not like I can tell them, they know I’m dead.” Urahara paused. He really should have thought about that earlier. Isshin and Masaki would kill him. Then he brightened.

                “I’ll just make him a gigai. After all, it’s not like we’ll be able to leave him in Soul Society.” Haruhi gave him a hard look.

                “You just came up with that plan on the spot, didn’t you?” She said accusingly.

                “Maybe.” Urahara said, walking towards the Shattered Shaft. Haruhi sighed and followed him, resolving to let Cirucci eat him if this went wrong, though not until after Ichigo had gotten his gigai.

_Haruhi’s Warehouse Home-Eleven days later_

                Haruhi looked around the training room under the warehouse she and her friends lived in. Apparently all of the buildings Urahara owned came with their own massive underground rooms. Everything was going fine. After threatening Urahara repeatedly, she’d talked to her neighbors, the Visoreds, and explained the situation. They’d been wary of working with a group of Hollows, but once it’d been made clear that they shared a common enemy in Aizen they agreed to help train Ichigo and his friends. She’d then tracked down Yoruichi, Orihime, and Chad. Yoruichi had agreed to hand her two students over, figuring that Hachi would do a better job at training Orihime than she could, and that she’d have time to get back in shape after not fighting for a hundred years. Ishida, agreed to come once he’d finished his training. Then she’d gotten Ichigo from Urahara and brought him along too.

                Ichigo was currently sparring with Shinji, Grimmjow, and Cirucci. Shinji was there to show him the basic sword style of the Gotei 13; Cirucci was there to show him how to fight against a whip sword like Renji’s, and Grimmjow was just there to keep Ichigo on his toes and make sure Ichigo could handle fighting multiple people at once. Lisa, Hiyori, Mashiro, and Kinsei were training Ishida and Chad to teach them how to handle multiple enemies, zanpakutos and when a shinigami would suddenly switch to Shikai in the middle of a fight, and mid ranged combat. Hachi was the only one training with Orihime due to being the only one with abilities similar to hers and she had the most to learn, though Nelliel had occasionally shown up to teach her how to fight against someone with a Zanpakuto. The other Visoreds and Hollows had spent the time swapping out if one of the teachers got to tired, killing any Hollows that showed up, and playing poker.

                “Well, things certainly seem to be going well.” Urahara said happily, walking up from behind. Haruhi nodded.

                “How are things going on your end?” She asked.

                “Ready to go when they are.” Urahara told her.

                “Tomorrow then?”

                “Tomorrow.” He said, nodding and walking back out to make sure everything was ready.

                “What did Hat and Clogs want?” Ichigo asked. Haruhi held up a hand, and then flared her reiatsu, alerting everyone.

                “Okay guys, Urahara just showed up. He said that everything is ready from his end, which means that, barring unexpected deaths or drunkenness, we’ll be going tomorrow night. Chad, Ishida, Orihime, and Ichigo, go home, spend time with your families, get some sleep, and eat a banana. The rest of you, thank you for your help these past eleven days, we’ll be playing poker upstairs once the kids leave.”

                “You’re the same age as me!” Ichigo protested.

                “Nope, I’m five minutes older and dead. That makes me older than all four of you, and therefore not a kid.”

                “And yet you’re the least mature of all of them.” Hiyori muttered. Haruhi just smiled and walked out of the room, heading upstairs.

_Urahara Shop-Twenty hours later_

                “Alright then, before we get going, a quick who’s who of Soul Society.” Urahara said happily, handing out a modified Denreishinki to five people and one cat in front of him. Ichigo’s eye twitched.

                “You’re just now going to tell us who to watch out for?” He growled.

                “Hey, it’s been a hundred years since I was in Soul Society, I can’t be sure of who or where everyone is. Heck, when I was there Byakuya wasn’t even in a division yet, he was a little kid. The only two I can confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that you should be scared of are Kurotsuchi Mayuri, and Commander Yamamoto. If you see a guy who looks like a clown, that’s Mayuri and you should run like hell unless you’re with Haruhi because he’s rather fond of poison. If you are with Haruhi, then you can calm down a little, but get far enough away that he can’t turn you into a bomb or poison you. And if you see an old bald man with a huge white beard, kiss your butts goodbye because out of all of you, Haruhi is the only one who has even a slight chance of surviving a fight with him, even if you all gang up on him. And if you see a motherly looking woman with long black hair, that’s Unohana Retsu. Whatever you do, do not piss her off.”

                “Why are the motherly ones always the scariest?” Haruhi asked, confused.

                “I have no idea.” Urahara admitted, stepping to the side and activating the portal. “Now, it’s time for you to go.” The six looked at each other, nodded, and ran into the portal. Urahara paused, pressed his hand against the portal, and winced as it burned him. He sighed, looking at it sadly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, some of you may be wondering why Haruhi didn’t just open a garganta to Soul Society. Simply put, they’re going for stealth at this point in time, and I think the Gotei 13 would probably notice a garganta being opened up directly into Soul Society.
> 
> Thanks for reading guys! See you next time!

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, thanks for reading! Don’t worry; the next chapter will start 1 year later, when the series will start. All suggestions and critiques are welcome. See you next time!


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